James Fallows has written an interesting piece at Atlantic.com on those lead-tainted Chinese toys. He made the point that market forces aren't enough to address this problem because:

Let's spell it out: a strictly market-based answer would mean waiting to see which kids got sick, hoping parents could figure out why, and assuming that their knowledge would guide future parents' purchases.

Instead, he argues, properly enforced regulations are an important part of the answer. I'm not Libertarian enough to believe that regulations - and enforcement of those regulations – don't play an important role in protecting consumers. But we shouldn't write off the market.

But I know who's responsible at the moment: less the Chinese manufacturers than the American "outsourcing" purchasers...

When those [Chinese] products are good, that is because the brand-name company insisted that they be good...

Purchasers just looking for something cheap from China will get it -- cheap in every sense of the term. That's not China's fault: it's early stage industrialization. Britain's factory life was dirty, slipshod, and dangerous in Charles Dickens's era, and America's was in the day of Upton Sinclair. And, frankly, American consumers just looking for something cheap will get it too.

Exactly. But this is still the market working – above the consumer level. Ultimately the greatest engine for change in China will be the punishment that American consumers and the American stock market deal out to American companies.

And this is fair. As Fallows points out, consumers don't have the resources to test every product for toxins. We have to trust the company that puts their name on the product. When they don't live up to that trust, they need to take a hit.

USAToday reports that Mattel stock is down 6%.

If you would like to see the toys that are subject to this lead recall, go to this webpage and then scroll down to

4. View the recall brochure."

Click the word "View." The recall affects many Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer toys.