Enron is bankrupt. Perot Systems insists it didn't do anything wrong. Relatively honest energy companies are settling--admitting they gamed the California energy market.The California energy crisis continues to be more than just a news story. It's the framework for political and financial issues in the Golden State. And a new book from Silver Lake Publishing makes sense of this framework.THE 10 BILLION JOLT: California's Energy Crisis-Cowardice, Greed, Stupidity and the Death of Deregulation by Silver Lake editorial director James Walsh is the first comprehensive analysis of the state's ill-fated effort at deregulating its electricity market. Says Walsh:The politicians in Sacramento called the program "deregulation." But it wasn't really that. It was half-deregulation, in which producers and middlemen were able to manipulate prices while end-users were locked in to non-economic prices. It would be hard to come up with a worse situation if you were trying.THE 10 BILLION JOLT follows the market developments chronologically, but flashes forward and back to show how specific decisions and actions played out across a six-year arc starting in the spring of 1996 and leading to...today.Topics that the book covers include: the politics and politicians that crafted the market changes; how prices were set at various stages; how utilities differ from energy marketers and generators; why so many economists have a blind faith in the efficiency of deregulation; how various companies manipulated the California markets; why some of California's big utilities went bankrupt and others didn't; and why the blackouts of early 2001 haven't recurred."A lot of people talk about the energy crisis," says Walsh. "And ranting about Enron is easy. But consumers and voters need a better understanding of how this kind of thing happens-to avoid letting it happen again. The crooks at Enron only obscure a bigger problem."THE 10 BILLION JOLT: California's Energy Crisis-Cowardice, Greed, Stupidity and the Death of DeregulationJames WalshTrade paperback366 pages (6" x 9")Price: 19.95ISBN 1-56343-748-1.