A friend and investment analyst for Manning & Napier, the area's most successful money management firm, mentioned to me in the fall of 2002, when the fast ferry had become a hot topic, only three ferries in the entire world ran profitably. Governments subsidized the losses of the others, ostensibly to provide economic benefit for the region, or at least, for politicians to associate their names with useful services and maintain their profile in the eyes of their subjects.