This is the most hackish thing Dean Esmay David Price ever wrote, until the next thing EsmayPrice writes, (to paraphrase a certain sarky blogger:
Little noticed this month was the news that Iraq’s electricity production has set a new all-time high in September of around 6,860 MW, including 2,000 MW or more of non-public generation (p40), illegal under Saddam (because like any good national socialist despot, he outlawed private generators). Oil revenue also set a new record of $3.79 billion (p39).
When he’s talking about “non-public generation” he means people with diesel generators people! He thinks his readers are stupid enough to read that and go “Whoo! Power to the free market!”. Well, perhaps he’s right; every writer gets the audience he deserves. But does he really believe anybody else will not realise that, you know, having to rely on your own generator to get electricity is not a good thing? Especially when you’re not living in some shack in Alaska five hours from the nearest village, but in a multimillion city? Or would David be happy to trade in his state controlled electricity for some free market solution?