The Oil Drum: Europe

One criterion of a free market is the freedom to NOT sell, ie withhold product. In California, any power provider who did not produce was threatened with getting "locked in a cell with Spike" by the State Attorney General, Bill Lockyer.

The net result was the bankrupcy of the state's largest generator, PG&E as they were required to sell at below their cost.

A reasonable question is whether the overall economy can afford to have shortages of electricity? The political response was absolutely not, hence the recall of Gov. Davis.

The thing is - deregulation has NEVER worked. But each time, somehow, proponents of deregulation say that deregulation was not properly conducted.

It's ironic how it's the same BS all over again!

It's exactly like how the apologists for Leninism kept on claiming that "Real Communism" wasn't "properly conducted" despite the obvious evidence that Communism hasn't ever worked---and the crimes committed in its name.

This is a difference between a "conservative" rules-based mindset (and stalinists were very conservative in their own way) and an empirical fact-analyzing data-driven mindset.

I believe the general, but not universal, success of capitalist organizations must be treated as a *testable, empirical phenomenon not an ideology*. Frankly this viewpoint isn't popular except among liberal nerd types.

And the specific physical facts about electricity generation and transmission (e.g. it is essential, and cannot be stored, and has immense multi-decadal-to-century timescale capital costs, and hourly-timescale cost and demand variations) make many capitalists "solutions" to be dangerous and unwise.

Medicine and health care are other obvious failures of markets to lead to good outcomes.