new frontiers for markets...

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

from SLATE magazine (7/17/00):
>  The NYT leads with a trend story about how some utility companies are
> now trying to use pricing to manage energy demand. The main examples: 1)
> a power company paying--at a rate considerably lower than the cost of
> buying electricity on the open market--a coal mine to shut down during a
> day of high demand, and 2) paying customers a bonus for accepting into
> their homes thermostats controlled (via the internet) by the utility.

of course, the thermostat would be run using Windows 98, so that it would
crash at least twice a day...

strictly speaking the above isn't about the "market" as much as about the
utility's "planning" of our lives.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine