By way of gentle persuasion, I would like to point out that casual
libertarians, like myself, certainly do not have unlimited faith in the
power of the market. We merely have even less faith in the power of
government to make correct
decisions about what should be built, bought, or sold. Citing one or
two examples of successful government-supported
industries, like Nokia, means very little. After all, anecdotes
generally don't mean much, and there are even more examples of
government-inspired catastrophes.
As for Japan, suffice to say
that most economists are indeed in accord that a government-directed
economy has produced a disastrous level of misinvestment. I would refer
you to any good history of the country and its economy, with particular
reference to MITI, the government agency in charge of industrial
policy.
