YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Yesterday, we saw that some investments inevitably go bad. People make mistakes. The private world of win-win deals routinely corrects them. Death, divorce, default, destitution – many are the ways it sets things right. But the public world… the world backed by tanks and armed police… the world of wars and sanctions… regulations and money-printing… uses its considerable might to resist correction. No matter how stupid… no matter how wasteful or harmful to the public weal – government programs are rarely and reluctantly discarded. The Definition of Eternity Dear readers who doubt this is true are invited to recall the real nature of government. It is an organization that has only one real goal – to protect and promote the people who control it.