[ycombobreaker]

> the government doesn't have to spend taxpayer money on countless r&d experiments

If you expect the government to make a tender offer on the largest market-cap companies, they sure as heck _are_ paying for r&d indirectly. And a lot more!

[maerF0x0]

Isn't that kind of what they do with QE?

[ycombobreaker]

I think it's quite different. It involves money, but QE is all about monetary supply and interest rates alone. Buying entire companies comes with a lot more implications, like decision-making power over the organization. You want that for API keys, but do you want that across the board? Seems like regulation would be much cheaper.