Editor's note

In the US, multi-million-dollar bonuses at insurer AIG, which is on the dole, sparked howls of outrage. In a time of economic crisis, all this howling makes everybody feel better. But it doesn't do anything about the crisis itself. The compensation scandal feeds the insidious notion that there's something rotten in the state of all business, and that the cure lies in government taking more control of the economy. Government doesn't grow a healthy economy. Businesses do, if helped by sound policy. Arguing for that might not feel as good as screaming to make the bastards pay.