And I can guaran-damn-tee-ya that the crooked California ISO employees and directors will NEVER be held accountable and will be allowed to skate free. Because as long as timid wimp power traders are too damn intimidated to stand up for their industry and their company, then chimp brains like Barbra Boxer and Ron Widen will just continue to b*tch slap the timid power traders all across the senate hearing rooms on national television for all the nation to see and for the people to continue to believe wrongly that the energy traders are evil and should be punished. It's too damn bad that the "energy traders" and employees that have testified at these bogus senate hearings could not have taken the cue from former Enron CEO JEFF SKILLING when he stood up to these idiot senators and did not let them stupidly and dishonestly misstate facts. It was refreshing to see Skilling shove their lies back in their faces and boldly and angrily interrupt the idiot grandstanding senators from babbling nonsense and lies. Do you not wonder why there have not been any traders from either Pennsylvania or Atlanta Georgia systems that serve 5 states? It's because they have proven the overwhelming success of deregulation.
Gosh, I must have punched your hot buttons.
Let me see if I can't punch a few more. In your quest to defend the free market, have you ever heard about anti-trust laws in the US. We don't have a "free market" in this Country. Are you aware that by international treaty there are a bunch of regulations on a variety of things from "dumping" to governmental subsidies. Totally free markets don't exist.
I am not sure I would want to live in a world where I was expected to "maximize" my profit potential or be considered a failure. In my marketing of services to my clients, I have had opportunities when they are despirate to charge them exorbinent fees. On occasion, when I never cared if I was hired by that client again, I have done so, but it was to send them a message to remind them about how they treated my firm in the past. I had one client that use to regularly pay me 6 months late. I decided that I would increase all my rates to that client by 35% and grant them a 20% discount if they paid within 30 days. They came to me and thought this was wonderful and they paid within 30 days. I felt like they were contribuing to the past works cost of money they had cost me, and were now behaving so it was worth doing.
Generally, I try to make sure that my clients feel that the savings I have provided them, more than pay for my services. I use to work for a company that had a set of core culture sayings that included our goal was something to the effect to: do good work, contribute to a positive society, have fun, and make a little money. At the end of the month, if we have been profitable, I don't lay awake at night saying if only I had charged my clients a little more. My glass is half full not half empty. I am happy making enough money to meet my needs, and don't feel bad if I could have made a little more. I have also sold power in power markets and figured out "market prices" for electricity sold to California. I always remembered that someday when I sold power, I might need to buy it as well. I worked at establishing relationships with my trading partners were we would help each other, as opposed to seeing who was the most despirate.