I gotta say the extended entry seems redundant here. Of course I hate them in general. If it was up to me, I’d have used them in anything shorter than Scott’s French boobies entry.

Doug,

fair point.

However, when they spun the US blackout, it was rather unprecedented. I doubt that article would have been published if it had not been the first of such incidents. No justification for their spin, just attempted explanation.

I suspect the causes of the electricity crisis in California in 2001 will turn out to be a far more challenging criticism of market systems than the recent blackout across the north-eastern states in America through into Canada. As we discovered recently in London, wide area power cuts can happen through a domino effect initiated by a simple technical fault in the system - in London’s case, a wrong fuse had been fitted.

Consider Paul Krugman’s assessment of the California crisis:

“In fact, the California energy crisis had nothing to do with environmental restrictions, and a lot to do with market manipulation. In 2001 the evidence for manipulation was basically circumstantial. But now we have a new report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which until now has discounted claims of market manipulation. No more: the new report concludes that market manipulation was pervasive, and offers a mountain of direct evidence, including phone conversations, e-mail and memos. There’s no longer any doubt: California’s power shortages were largely artificial, created by energy companies to drive up prices and profits…” - from: http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001248.html

The slant of the Der Spiegel article is clearly another sign of anti-American bigotry in Europe.