While some assets, such as forests, can provide benefits to society in perpetuity, some firms see forests as consumable assets. One example occurred when corporate raider James Goldsmith forcibly acquired Crown Zellerbach in Washington State. After doing so, he cut all of Crown Zellerbach’s trees, including one 12,000-acre clear-cut, and then sold off all the company’s remaining assets piecemeal, a practice called “junk bond forestry.”

What does this suggest about the long-term environmental sustainability of free market decisions?

(Institutionalist)