Conventional wisdom, except in China with its plethora of state-owned enterprises, has become that governments should get out of business. Business knows best how to run things efficiently and to make money, whereas governments tend to tie up enterprise in bureaucratic red tape, or so the thinking goes.
A 2003 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of the rich industrialized nations, found that "privatization brings about a significant increase in the profitability, real output and efficiency of companies."
Indeed, other European governments, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are ganging up on Greece, demanding that it sell government-owned industries to raise 50 billion by 2015 to help pay down its massive debts and get the economy back on an even keel. It may prove a dangerous move, as the lessons of history are mixed.