Who and how to rescue
So Jaguar might be "rescued" by the UK government. Robert Peston gives a summary of some of the arguments. Even more quickly, here they are: The company is not able to refinance its loans, but is still fundamentally a good business 15,000 people are employed by Jaguar and up to 60,000 second-order jobs are dependent on it It is one of the remaining UK-based manufacturers with substantial ongoing R&D But: It is owned by Tata, the (profitable) Indian multinational There's a risk of moral hazard - if Tata can get finance for its UK operations like this, why wouldn't other companies do it and use their scarce private funds elsewhere? There is no doubt that Peter Mandelson is aware of these arguments - he makes it pretty clear in the interview with Robert Peston. What other criteria or safeguards might he use to make sure that public money is genuinely providing a public good which would not be financed by the private sector; and that it gets a positive return? Sugge...