Why Does Government Preserve Lame Ducks?

The paradoxical behaviour of governments in preserving patently outmoded methods of production has previously been explained by the concentration of benefits from intervention compared with the diffusion of the costs, and by unwillingness to lose votes in marginal constituencies. Laurence Copeland, at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, suggests that the probable visibility of the 'finger on the button' is a more likely cause of the preservation of economic wildlife and calls for a policy of industrial disengagement by the Government to complement its financial strategy.