The government's job is to create economic incentives that tip the balance of power towards investment. The worst thing a government can do is step in, because it completely perturbs what true supply or demand is. In any market, they should be able to do this. But i think what fribrook is saying is when then they do do it successfully, and a market starts to germinate on its own, where supply and demand happens naturally between the private markets. That is where they are exceptional.