Another brilliant idea from our federal government:
For years, the federal government bought the [dairy] industry’s excess cheese and butter, an outgrowth of a Depression-era commitment to use price supports and other tools to maintain the dairy industry as a vital national resource. This stockpile, packed away in cool caves in Missouri, grew to a value of more than $4 billion by 1983, when Washington switched gears.
In 2010 dollars, that’s $8.8 billion of cheese and butter tucked away in caves!
(Via Volokh.)