Posted on 06/21/2002 12:57:31 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Edited on 04/14/2004 10:05:13 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Records show Perot Systems coached traders, including Edison, on market 'options.'
SACRAMENTO
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
| To find all articles tagged or indexed using Calpowercrisis, click below: | ||||
| click here >>> | Calpowercrisis | <<< click here | ||
| (To view all FR Bump Lists, click here) | ||||
The source of the problem explained, right in the lead.
Any market that is "crafted" invites gaming by "craftsmen".
Only a deregulated (i.e., "uncrafted") develops its own antibodies against gaming -- by rewarding the wise and penalizing the greedy and terminally lazy.
Only governments, and their attendant liberals, believe they are capable of "crafting" a market. Yet, one will always develop, quite naturally, at the interface between consumer and supplier.
And the media and their Reporters even those from a Conservative Paper like the Register.
How do we fight this idiocy!
On another matter
-----------------------
System is slow and articles are posting improperly!
Can't update keywords on this article.
Bingo. F.A. Hayek called that belief "The Fatal Conceit".
Those that try crafting a market soon find that they are trying to herd cats or push a chain. Sadly, California seems to be stuck in the 1600's, philosophically speaking.
Taxes rose even as prosperity declined. Colbert's massive system of state-regulated commerce and industry had begun to collapse before his death (1683). Partly it died through the drain of men from farms and factories to camps and battlefields. Chiefly it died through self-strangulation: governmental regulations stifled the growth that might have come under less supervision and restraint, more liberty to breathe, to experiment, and to err. Enterprise found itself bound by a maze of orders and penalties; the complex mechanism of economic activity, moved by the toilsome hunger of the many and the inventive greed of the few, groaned and stumbled under a mountain of rules, and threatened to halt. So soon as 1685 we hear the cry of laissez faire, sixty-five years before Quesnay and Turgot, ninety-one before Adam Smith. "The supreme secret", said one of Louis XIV's intendants, "is to allow complete freedom of trade. Never had manufacturers and commerce so wasted away in this realm as since we have taken it into our heads to build them up by the decrees of the state"--"The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant. Vol VIII, pg 690
At this rate of retrogression, we'll be back to gathering nuts and berries by the next century.
It seems that way to me, too, sadly enough. Personally, I think Western Civilization peaked on July 20, 1969.
But there is still hope for a turnaround. Thanks to FR, we can still question, analyze, remember, and in turn, try to educate the TV-watching-soma-taking masses.
People are not stupid, they just need to hear the truth.
BTW, where I live we have wild blueberries and blackberries all over the place, if it comes to that ;-)
What we seem to know is that Perot Systems briefed Enron, Southern Cal Edison, and Reliant.
Reliant paid Perot $11,673 for a 115-page presentation in June 1998.
Another Edison executive briefed on the options, Vikram Budhraja, later became one of Gov. Gray Davis' closest energy advisers, working on long-term energy contracts. Reached at home Thursday, Budhraja declined to discuss the 1997 briefing.
"I left Edison years ago. I think you should talk to Edison about this," said Budhraja, who was later fired by Davis for potential conflicts of interest involving his investments in energy companies.
Rather than speculating on what Enron or Reliant did with the Perot Systems information, I shall leave that for Mr. Dunn. What I find very interesting that this is starting to become a question of "business ethics." At the center of this question of business ethics are people near Gov. Davis. Whether it is in the purchase of software, the negotiations of power contracts, the meeting with Teachers about possible legislation, ethics seems to be something that is being questioned and lacking in the current Governor of California.
I think that the Democrats like Dunn and like Boxer and Feinstein, should start thinking about their "end game" regarding the California power crisis. Right now it appears that their "end game" is likely to destroy the Democrat's candidate for Governor. That may be desired by the Democratic party or an unintended consequence of their desire to pin the energy crisis on Enron and then hopefully smear Bush/Cheney. Would Dunn, Boxer, Feinstein sacrafice Davis to try to harm Bush/Cheney?? Inquiring minds want to know.
In other words, chump change.
Meaning that the Perot presentation was not "the key to the vault" the Davis administration would like to have us all think it was.
If Perot's "gaming system" had any real value, it would have cost upwards of half-a-million. Or, for exclusive rights, $2-3 mill.
What's eleven grand-and-change, between big boys, competing in a multi-billion dollar power market? If I was Perot Systems, I'd be embarrassed at the prices quoted.
After all, it took over twice that for Oracle to buy a governor, on one contract, once...
It took me a minute to recognize the reference (which, itself, makes a statement). But you have a very valid point...
Your wife, I trust, keeps you in wild blueberry and blackberry pies.
Absolutely. This is all about NATIONAL politics.
Remember the thread where I posted the piece from the "polical professional" website? They said the whole Enron thing was about electoral votes in the West.
I'll link or repost it if I can find it.
Yup. I pick 'em, she bakes 'em, the way nature intended.
....the complex mechanism of economic activity, moved by the toilsome hunger of the many and the inventive greed of the few.... Will and Ariel Durant
Wow. Never better said. Howvever, there is a good kind of 'greed' and a bad kind. This comment (of mine) surely has very little (directly) to do with this thread, but your quote above puts me in mind of a long-lasting frustration I have had regarding a stock in which I recently invested. Despite the company's solid fundamentals, and forward-looking product and philosophy, I had postponed investing in it because it was being interminably manipulated by the market manipulators. I sensed (wrongly) that the manipulation was coming to an end and took the plunge. Just today, a fellow investor friend penned this (regarding this particular stock, but it could apply to many):
(Particular comments on this stock....followed by....) Imagine that! And the SEC thinks all the crooks are at Enron and Anderson. Individual investors are avoiding the markets because of the Brokers, MMs, Hedge Funds, etc. and the illegal BS that occurs everyday in the markets. ____ needs to make investor friendly moves like moving to the NYSE, increasing the float by doing a stock split, hiring a new Investment relations firm, etc. It won't completely stop the manipulation, but it should help alleviate it some.
The little guy hasn't a snowball's chance anymore. If it isn't the government, it's the money handlers (actually, I guess you could say they are one and the same....). There is no more freedom when it comes to any market. The manipulators call most of the shots, whether by regulation or behind-the-scenes shenanigans.
Personally, I think Western Civilization peaked on July 20, 1969....snopercod
I understand your reference, John. And that was surely a breathtaking day in the history of mankind. But science/exploration/human ingenuity aside, I think the peak to which you refer took place much earlier. If I had to home in on a date I'd (Ameri-centric) place it on September 17, 1787 -- the day that the most magnificent blueprint for the governance of man in the history of humankind was submitted for ratification. IMHO, it's all been downhill from there. That almost supernal blueprint (the right to pen it won, and the painstaking deliberations involved in its creation performed, at a cost that few of us modern day Americans can even comprehend) never was held in the esteem that it deserved. Never was implemented as its authors intended. Not even by Americans of the late eighteenth century; and most certainly not by our own contemporary (so-called) leaders.
Yes, there have been indescribable advances in the arts, technology, scientific discoveries, etc. brought to fruition by western civilization, especially over the past two hundred-plus years. But, with all of man's technological and (supposedly) intellectual giant steps forward, there was always a concomitant (and mostly unnoticed, until the past couple of decades) chipping away at the notion of the eternal sanctity of human life and individual liberty going on behind the scenes. The nation responsible for the miracle that occurred on July 20, 1969 (and most other modern miracles, as well) was already far beyond the civilization apex (in the ways that really count), and well on its way down the (slippery slope) other side by the late sixties.
Your wife, I trust, keeps you in wild blueberry and blackberry pies.
Yup. I pick 'em, she bakes 'em, the way nature intended....snopercod
I've baked my share of blueberry pies (never a blackberry one, though, sorry to say. I actually prefer blackberry.) But, you're the way nature intended comment brings to mind another of Will Durant's quotes, regarding the nature of man and woman:
If you wish to learn which sex is the more intelligent, watch any man in relation with any woman, and see which of the two will twist the other around her finger.
(He said it. Not I. :)
And, one of my favorites from him (not man/woman, not economic mechanisms, but still Durant-profound):
The taste of innumerable average men became the guide of the manufacturer, the dramatist, the scenario writer, the novelist, at last of the painter, the sculptor, and the architect; cost and size became norms of value, and a bizarre novelty replaced beauty and workmanship as the goals of art.
I'm finished rambling now... :)
If memory serves me correctly--the former CEO of Edison is none other than Davis' current energy czar--the esteemed David Freeman. I can't wait to hear Davis' response to why he invited the wolves into the chicken coop.
The liberals/socialists believe they and their smart friends can create mistake-free progress. Their conceit ensures that the inevitable errors will linger as they are denied, covered up, or ignored and progress is delayed. Theirs is a system of men, not laws.
Capitalism exposes and admits error and quickly moves to other solutions. It is a system of laws, not men.
You may be right, but my memory is the Freeman was at TVA, then SMUD, the LADWP. At TVA he made a name for himself in shutting down nuclear construction and that is partly why he was brought out to SMUD. Again, Freeman is a publicity seeker and I really don't have a lot of respect for him, but I don't remember his being at Edison
I guess democrats do eat their own then. To bad for Davis.....No, maybe a fitting end.
Are you thinking of John E. Bryson, CEO of Edison and co-founder of the NRDC? [link]
John E. Bryson
Mr. Bryson is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Edison International and its largest subsidiary, Southern California Edison Company. He is also Chair of the company's other principal subsidiaries, Edison Mission Energy, a worldwide developer of independent power projects, and Edison Capital, an international energy and infrastructure finance company. Prior to joining Edison in 1984, Mr. Bryson was a partner in the law firm of Morrison and Foerster, President of the California Public Utilities Commission, and Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board. He co-founded and was attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national public interest environmental law firm. He is a director of the Times Mirror Company, U.M. Keck Foundation, and The Boeing Company; trustee of Stanford University; Chair of the California Business Roundtable; and a member of the Governor's Council of Economic Policy Advisors and the President's Advisory Committe for Trade Policy and Negotiations.
Even though the moon shot was a government-run program based upon the ideas of Werner von Braun, a German, it was acomplished by the industrial might of America.
The Durant quotes were great. Thanks. little finger...yup!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.