THE FREE MARKET FAIRY FAILS AGAIN

Remember how deregulation was the next best thing to finding $20 bills on the ground? Well, not so much, really. The evidence, from Nobel Prizes to the sub-prime mess, seems to indicate that the market that is glorified by the wingnuts isn't so good after all.

(Via Big Picture)

Competitively Priced Electricity Costs More, Studies Show
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: November 6, 2007

Retail electricity prices have risen much more in states that adopted competitive pricing than in those that have retained traditional rates set by the government, new studies based on years of price reports show.

The data are the latest to show that competition, which was promoted by big industrial companies and Enron as the best way to create competitive incentives to reduce prices, has instead resulted in higher and faster rising prices.

In market states, electricity customers of all kinds, from homeowners to electricity-hungry aluminum plants, pay $48 billion more each year for power than they would have paid in states with the traditional system of government boards setting electric rates, according to Mrs. Showalter’s analysis of Energy Department data in an earlier report in September.