The real villain
A guy named Robert Kuttner had an interesting op-ed piece in The New York Times on Friday. He blamed the blackout on deregulation.
Today Bohemian Mama picks up on a Greg Palast piece along the same lines.
I'm with these guys. The Almighty Free Market works only so well, and only with certain commodities. With energy -- as with air travel, and to a large extent with telecommunications -- deregulation has been an utter fiasco in practice. The benefits have been meager, and the abuses have been major.
They worried that the Vatican would secretly control JFK. With Bush, it's not the Vatican we should be worried about -- it's the Economics Department at the University of Chicago.
Comments (2)
Incidentally, Kuttner's one of the folks who started the American Prospect, which is a very fine magazine. So not surprising you find him a wise and sober voice.
Posted by Emma | August 18, 2003 3:14 PM
You can almost hear the carnies barking... "Step right up! Increased competition! Lower rates! Maximized consumer surplus! A guaranteed winner every time! Don't bother me with that 'natural monopoly' baloney, kid. I got things to do."
Posted by Jack Green | August 26, 2003 2:24 PM