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Enron tried to trade natural gas futures; it only caused massive price swing and economic disaster for anyone buying those contracts. They tried to privatize w
by photochemsyn 3y ago
Enron tried to trade natural gas futures; it only caused massive price swing and economic disaster for anyone buying those contracts. They tried to privatize water systems, and that was another disaster:
https://www.citizen.org/news/enrons-failure-in-water-ventures-highlights-dangers-of-privatization-to-consumers-taxpayers/ https://www.citizen.org/news/enrons-failure-in-water-venture...
Overall, Enron is a good example for why critical infrastructure like water and energy should be nationalized and stabilized - the opposite of investment capitalism's casino approach - not because it would form the basis of a communist utopia, but because every other competitive market industry relies on those basic services to thrive and grow.
- AlexandrB 3y agoThis is also why industries like Bitcoin mining can be so corrosive. You can't stabilize the price of a commodity like energy if there's an entity that can generate nearly infinite demand.
- bequanna 3y agoWell, the rewards for Bitcoin mining are zero-sum so the demand will never really be infinite as the miners need some amount of profitability.
- AlexandrB 3y agoFair enough. Though as long as the price of bitcoin continues to increase demand for compute can continue increasing as well.
- bequanna 3y agoRight, but I believe halving of rewards also keeps the compute growth in check somewhat. I suppose it just depends on how BTC price increases vs the halving timeline.