Down almost 8%, page-61

We are talking private companies here, its not exactly governments fault. Sure they can regulate that a % of production is set aside for domestic use. But its pretty clear mining and energy companies loath regulation.

People are already crying foul play about the most recent blackouts that they may have been deliberate in order to manipulate the market (heard it on ABC radio on Thursday/Friday). Years ago I used to work for Accenture (formerly Anderson consulting) and back then the company got mixed up with Enron who were basically staving the market of energy supply to bump the prices up. It was a class act, people died.

How do you stop it and secure energy supply? Well you could start by not privatizing energy. In fact privatizing anything that the public depend on is a terrible idea in my opinion. It's always a disaster waiting to happen and its the tax payer who picks up the bill anyway when the large privatized energy, healthcare, communications, public transport or education provider goes tits up because people need those institutions/facilities regardless of if they are profitable or not.