The Larger Lesson Of Solyndra

Venture socialism doesn't work.

Everywhere you look, you see Obama turning government into a venture capitalist or business partner. His administration says it wants to expand Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, those government-sponsored enterprises that fueled the housing bubble by eating private banks' mortgage risk.

Last year, Obama's Export-Import Bank -- a government agency that subsidizes U.S. exporters (primarily Boeing) -- broke its record for the most subsidy dollars provided in a single year. Ex-Im is something of a model for the DOE finance program from which Solyndra benefitted.

Part of Obama's Stimulus II is a similar "infrastructure bank." Administration officials and their allies have floated the idea of a "Green Bank," a permanent subsidy agency to let a thousand Solyndras bloom.