Deregulation in high-capital, long-lead-time, must-serve markets like energy, telecom, and emergency medicine has generally ended badly. Because eventually som

Deregulation in high-capital, long-lead-time, must-serve markets like energy, telecom, and emergency medicine has generally ended badly. Because eventually someone realizes profit can be maximized by (minimizing investment) + (maximizing risk) + (increasing prices) + (appealing for government bailouts whenever catastrophe strikes). A utility commission that looks skeptically at rate increases, but in return provides a more stable rate that industry can use to plan long-term expansions against, works better. Yes, you have to deal with regulatory capture and ambivalence towards increasing efficiency and modernizing business -- but those are still solvable problems in a regulated environment.