In this age of rent seeking and special pleading, one should keep in mind the counsel of Fredrich Hayek, who presciently offered this observation 65 years ago: 

The task of creating a suitable framework for the beneficial working of competition had, however, not yet been carried very far when states everywhere turned from it to that of supplementing competition by a different and irreconcilable principle. The question was no longer one of making competition work and of supplementing it but of displacing it altogether. It is important to be quite clear about this: the modern movement for planning is a movement against competition as such, a new flag under which all the old enemies of competition have rallied.  

F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Univ. of Chicago Press 2007) (1944). 

It is thus reassuring to read of the success of New York Life who the Wall Street Journal reports has rebounded from a $3.5 billion loss in its investment portfolio last year to grow 5.4% in the first quarter this year from 3.6% a year earlier. Leslie Scism, Matthew Dolan, Ann Zimmerman, Michael Corkery, Slump Spurs Grab for Markets, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 24, 2009, at A1. The company has vaulted to second place from ninth in revenue from life-insurance premiums and annuity deposits. Id. In contrast, AIG has fallen to sixth. Id. New York Life’s success owes to its strategy of “eschew[ing] more profitable but riskier offerings, such as annuities with investment-performance guarantees tied to the stock market, which some rivals sold.” Id. Therefore, while many of its rivals “were forced to boost their reserves and capital to assure regulators that they could make good on … investment guarantees,” New York Life proceeded with an aggressive campaign to grab market share, increasing its “2009 advertising budget by 24% over 2008.” Id.