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To: Don Lloyd who wrote (100457)	5/8/2001 10:28:55 AM
From: flatsville	Respond to of 436258

>>>The purpose of a free market is to distribute a scarce good to its most valued uses and balance supply and demand by impacting both.<<< Textbook answer. Very good. I doubt it's possible (at this time) to establish a true "free market" in electricity. Deregulation won't do it. It's done nothing but produce "rigged" markets or rather "re-rigged" markets...a "resdistribution of wealth" as tippet would call it. >>>Destroying the market is certainly not the answer.<<< Dunno...may be...may be not. Creative destruction may prove instructional and cautionary for those willing to pay attention. Just glad it ain't me...so far.

To: Don Lloyd who wrote (100457)	5/8/2001 12:10:50 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

>>No one can know what a proper price is except as a result of a market process, so if the price either rises or falls by a factor of 10, it says nothing useful by itself<< actually, it does. the politicians and energy suppliers that ACTIVELY SOLD deregulation as the way to LOWER prices would be proved to have misled the public. >>What we do know is that a persistent shortage indicates either that prices are too low or that there exist regulatory or other barriers to entry or both<< another option is market manipulation. there have been plenty of reports of power plants not operating due to "maintenance." a very unusual amount of "maintenance." some of the smaller players didn't like the deal the cali assembly made with one of the big players and so they shut down for a while and forced blackouts. artificially reducing supply would be a nice way to constrain supply, jack up prices and let the public know who "daddy" REALLY is. >>If a proponent of deregulation claims that consumer prices will necessarily fall he is every bit as much of an ignoramus as a so-called consumer advocate who cares about nothing but consumer prices even to the point of shortages.<< the problem is that those ignoramuses are sitting on BILLIONS right now - and billions more are flooding their coffers daily. conflict of interest? deception? manipulation? lies? >>Destroying the market is certainly not the answer.<< there appears to be no incentive for decision makers to fix the market, either. the status quo is FAR too profitable for both energy suppliers and politicians.