Memory prices drop below production costs

USAToday is running a piece about memory prices - specifically a 25% drop in price since the end of 2004 that are seriously affecting margins. 

Benchmark prices for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) were quoted at $2.87 per unit on online microchip broker DRAMexchange.com, down by a quarter from $3.84 at the end of 2004. Analysts say it costs roughly $3 to make the chips, though Taiwan companies have lower overheads.

It's amazing that with the volatility of memory prices there are still so many players involved in the market. It's not like this is the first time that prices have dropped below production cost. I don't know how many times memory companies should be bailed out before governments/creditors realize that maybe it's not such a bad thing for one or two of these companies to die out.