They checked the inspection records of the peanut processing plant that has been linked to recent cases of Salmonella - 7 people died and 500 got sick - and found out that the FDA had cited the plant for numerous violations of cleanliness starting in 2007. Nobody closed the plant, possibly because such a punitive reaction would have created bad feelings and impaired self-regulation.

Which has been a popular policy with the former regime. The theory, originating with the immortal economist, universal genius and writer of steamy right wing novels, Ayn Rand, goes like this: Without government intervention firms will produce good products because, if they do not, they will lose their reputation and go out of business.

Now Wonks Anonymous supposes that the concern over reputation would be slightly less important since the plant in question sold products to institutional users and food manufacturers. Still its large customers must surely have had some way to check its reputation and monitor its performance. After all, we can assume that markets always provide cheap and reliable information.

And the owners of this business will clearly be punished. Think of the time it will take them to restart operations under a different brand name. Maybe a whole year.

Or maybe this particular theory has just run up against an inconvenient reality.