One of the legacies of what we now call "Enron" is the surfeit of crazy statements about regulation that abound in any discussion of the subject. (Like Watergate quickly became more than a mere luxury residence, Enron will forever be more than a mere company. Both attained the rarefied status of one-word scandals.) Any half-smart blogger worth his salt, or with enough time on his hands, could spend the next couple of days picking apart the editorial in today's Washington Post entitled "Enron's Legacy".

For now, I'll sleep better tonight just bringing the following oxymoronic statement to your attention: "Yet the future success of deregulated energy markets depends on the existence of a reliable regulator, with enhanced powers to enforce standard market rules and to penalize companies that fail to comply with reliability requirements or that manipulate markets."

Now that I think about it, why did I ever think we should have "deregulated" markets without "reliable regulators with enhanced powers" enforcing "standard market rules"?

We free marketeers still have some work to do with the Post's editorial board, among others.