Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Alternatives to knutclient
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 23:28:18
Message-Id: 7158279.1LLyUKUnIt@dell_xps
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Alternatives to knutclient by Rich Freeman
1 On Monday, 30 October 2017 21:04:00 GMT Rich Freeman wrote:
2 > On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 4:50 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
3 > > have we profited on today'. However, when a company is public, stocks
4 > > and such, then it is about what have we made today with no one caring
5 > > about years from now. After all, the people owning the stocks may not
6 > > even own them next week.
7 >
8 > Nor should they be concerned with the long-term.
9
10 Not all shareholders flip their stock in milliseconds to front-end retail
11 investors in market movements. There are also few(er) long term investors,
12 but they have been crowded out by big banks and hedge fund algo desks.
13
14
15 > This should be the
16 > role of the regulator. If the regulator wants spare capacity, then
17 > they should take bids for companies to have spare capacity available
18 > and they get paid to just sit on their excess capacity. If the
19 > regulator wants more redundancy in the transmission network then they
20 > should set specifications for what is desired and take bids from those
21 > able to build it out. If the regulator wants everything to be
22 > replaced within a certified lifetime based on testing then they should
23 > specify this, and take bids from those willing to maintain the grid to
24 > this standard.
25
26 The problem is the regulator is typically a toothless entity, a paper tiger,
27 put in place to apply soft touch intervention by issuing corrective notices,
28 when step-in required to curtail the abusive behaviour of market participants
29 is long overdue.
30
31 The regulator does not hold the budget, central government departments do and
32 the regulator cannot (or will not) control abnormal profits privatised
33 utilities are making year after year. However, the regulator will engage
34 enthusiastically in the a theatre of regular reviews of market conditions, in
35 an attempt to convince consumers and tax payers the most gratuitous abuse of
36 power is kept in check.
37
38
39 > The problem is that the general public does not see the value in
40 > infrastructure, so they don't think about it when they're voting.
41 > Instead they vote based on whatever fringe issues the politicians want
42 > them to focus on instead.
43 >
44 > If a company is going to get paid the same whether they build for
45 > extra reliability or not, they're going to opt not to. Not only does
46 > this give them more profits, but it makes their bids more competitive
47 > vs some other company that would just undercut them for
48 > "over-providing."
49
50 Even worse, on the usual design-build-operate contracts they are often
51 motivated to undercut reliability for a more competitive price, hoping to bail
52 out of the operate part just as the infrastructure is about to fall apart.
53
54
55 > Lax regulation just punishes conscientious market participants.
56
57 On tenders evaluated on a quality:price ratio basis this does not happen as
58 often, although it is hard to change entrenched behaviours among competitors.
59
60 --
61 Regards,
62 Mick

Attachments

File name MIME type
signature.asc application/pgp-signature

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Alternatives to knutclient Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-user] Alternatives to knutclient Wols Lists <antlists@××××××××××××.uk>