In 2009, the Obama administration guaranteed $535 million of loans to Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer whose prospects were, to be charitable, uncertain. The president appeared in person to sanctify the arrangement. Two and a half years later, the company imploded; the triumphant photo op turned into a half-billion-dollar write-off for the American public. Republican leaders reacted with understandable outrage. House Energy Committee Chair Fred Upton denounced the arrangement as “a classic