If CATO admit that de-regulation and unbundling does not benefit the consumer in the probable future market, who is driving this ? Or is this simple ideological intertia incapable, Brooks-style, of understanding that not all free market solutions are inherently good ? keep to the Fen Causeway
Yes it's ideological, but yes there is a constituency - the traders, the providers of hedging instruments, the M&A bankers and the strategy consultants that can offer plans to conquer other markets by purchase or by other means.
And the Brits trying to break EDF or E.On. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
They're only convincing for as long as they can appear to be value neutral. Once they're understood to be inherently biased and partial, they lose a lot of their persuasive power.