``..but I think his [Chuck] comments underestimate the extent to which the leaders of US society are going to have to bring in reforms. They are scrambling over this, and the consequential implications of different proposals are not clear to them...'' Chris Burford.
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It's true. I can't make up my mind about whether capital and its govt policy makers are so blinded by their own ideology that they can't see straight, or, if they understand what they've done and are merely covering their ass. Probably both in some balance.
But the problem presented to policy by say Enron, Dynergy, Reliant, El Paso, CMS, PG&E, etc---is these were already created by neoliberal free market privatization schemes in the first place.
In other words, they were a priori frauds. Their business model was simply managing parts of existing distribution systems (public utilities: pipelines, storage terminals, pumping stations, electric grids, power stations, etc) were the `product' was a virtual creation of law.
The conundrum is how to reform, reforms which were essentially frauds and keep the ideology that created them from being contaminated by its own consequences. So, I think the answer will be to blame the bookkeepers and bean counters, and limit the damage.
But this isn't going to work, since the so-called underlying reality is economically worthless. Managing rents on pipelines and electric grids just doesn't produce anything, except money. Money is fine for capital, but it doesn't produce energy and it isn't oil or gas or electricity. Somewhere along the way, actual material value counts, and there is damn little of that in just about any of this neoliberalized energy sector bullshit.
Chuck Grimes