Your response seems to assume that if the government is "right" in its action (apparently as determined by your criteria alone), then the action of force someho

Your response seems to assume that if the government is "right" in its action (apparently as determined by your criteria alone), then the action of force somehow doesn't count. That is, because BP did evil, or because consumers might be protected, government action somehow doesn't count as force that asserts power of corporations. Even if you're right, it's beside the point. My argument was that government holds ultimate power even against the biggest corporations. It is true that they're not always able to wield their power, as in your BP example. That's a good thing, because it demonstrates that the government is at least constrained to operate predictable (i.e., the rule of law). If the government were able to spin anything as a righteous stand, and do whatever they thought they could get away with, then business (and indeed any freedom) would be stymied, because people could not be certain that they'd be able to go about their business -- the fear from uncertainty would inhibit all sorts of activities. And the fact that ATT and IBM are doing well now really doesn't enter into it. The simple fact is that these were giant, powerful corporations. Yet the government still had the power to tear them apart. That simple fact demonstrates my argument; the "goodness" of the action is besides the point.