LA is fucked

How's your city's infrastructure?

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???


Enron and the cumulative effects of deregulation.


Duh.

I like living in a city on the brink of apocalypse, personally. It gives mundane things like going grocery shopping and going to the laundromat that certain je ne sais quoi.

Is that Alec Baldwin?

The bars are gonna rake in the dough during LArmageddon.

I get Arrowhead delivered to my house, so I should be okay, right?

Actually, it is LADWP, SCE and SDGE that is the culprit. At no time did Enron and other marketers have accountability for the pipes and wires, strictly just commodity. Pipes and wires are still under the jurisdiction of the regulated utility.

Perhaps they should deregulate the distribution network to encourage investment into the infrastructure, because as of now, there is in incentive.

You couldn't have told me this before I arrived?

That's it. I'm fucking out of here.

Why do you think people started looking into this?

How's your infrastructure?

"Apocalypse" was the first word to spring to my mind.

It happened because the powers that be continue to believe Developers lies that uncontrolled growth is not only Progress but the Solution to every problem. Developers are given Millions in subsidies but aren't rquired to do anything about the overburdened infrastructure they are stressing to the breaking point.
The same thing is happening all over the U.S.
I live in a tiny, pop. 650, town on the Oregon coast and am constantly trying to explain to the Realtor/Developer controlled City Council and Planning Commision that if Growth were Progress
Lost Angeles would be Paradise.
Citys continue to think an increase in Property Tax Revenue can solve any problem. They don't seem to comprehend that the more a City grows the more expensive it is to maintain the neccessary infrastructure.
I need to go take some more Tums

I keep reading about how the economy is about to take a nose dive. Maybe the way back up will be a WPA-style overhaul of the nation's infrastructure. (Although current trends point toward more privatization and deregulation instead.)

This article even makes a case for public spending on "things like renewable energy, rail and public infrastructure" to stimulate the ailing economy.

The economy is probably going to take a turn south, but I don't see naked shorts and FTD trades as much of a problem. The credit derivatives issue though, have fueled what could turn out to be a firestorm if manipulated right. Fortunately, China for right now wants us to keep buying shit, but if they wanted to, they could get together with some hedge funds and pull a supermove that would do a lot of damage.

Hedge funds though I don't think are a problem. They are essentially just groups formed to escape shackling regulations of mutual funds for people who know what they are doing, and understand derivatives, options, etc. I don't think the government should regulate what is essentially people who are smarter, quicker, and better with their money than the average middle class person

Thats weird, I want New York to explode.

The video FTR posted is about the failing infrastructure--like light poles and power lines.

The article you link to is about the supply line and rolling blackouts in 2000.

scorp17yh's comment had to do with developers placing increased demands on existing infrastructure. I think it was much more closely related to the topic brought up by FTR than your response, although your response does have the added truthiness factor of being boldified.

I just hope it's during happy hour.

[Libertarian tinfoil]
No, clearly it was because the execution of deregulation didn't go far enough. This is always the case whenever industry deregulations quickly result in easily forseeable disaster; if only we had completely done away with gubbymint interference, truly we would now be living in a utopian paradise and Ayn Rand would have risen from the grave to give us all blowjobs.
[/Libertarian tinfoil]

Man, I don't think I'd even accept an Ayn Rand blowjob, necrophilia notwithstanding.

I didn't think I would ever say that I wouldn't accept a blowjob. Beware flying pigs and freezing floors.

In other news: it doesn't really surprise me that the infrastructure is falling apart, because supporting the infrastructure would be bad for the bottom line.

Don't forget the massive flooding in the big apple too, polar ice caps?

Amaranth Advisors managed $9,000,000,000 (nine billion dollars) in assets.
They collapsed after losing $6,000,000,000 in one week on bad bets on natural gas futures, producing the largest hedge fund collapse in history.

Long Term Capital Management collapsed in 1998 after losing 4.6 billion dollars in a few months, almost taking down a large swath of the US securities market with it. This was only avoided by a massive Federal Reserve Bank of New York orchestrated buyout.

Forbes magazine: the problems with hedge funds

Yeah, I know all that (but thanks for saying it for those reading along at home).

I'm more reacting to the tone of the comment - "shackling" with regulations those who he perceives as "smarter, quicker and better" with their money when the very lack of regulation makes hedge funds a black hole and helps produce fiascoes like LTCM, Amaranth, and many others.

Those investors more likely than not don't understand strips, derivatives and complex mortage-backed securities better than the middle-class investors freshprncebelair so blithely writes off.