The Power Brokers
The Struggle to Shape and Control the Electric Power Industry
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
About this listen
For more than a century, the interplay between private, investor-owned electric utilities and government regulators has shaped the electric power industry in the United States. Provision of an essential service to largely dependent consumers invited government oversight and ever more sophisticated market intervention. The industry has sought to manage, coopt, and profit from government regulation. In The Power Brokers, Jeremiah Lambert maps this complex interaction from the late 19th century to the present day.
Lambert's narrative focuses on seven important industry players: Samuel Insull, the principal industry architect and prime mover; David Lilienthal, chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who waged a desperate battle for market share; Don Hodel, who presided over the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in its failed attempt to launch a multiplant nuclear power program; Paul Joskow, the MIT economics professor who foresaw a restructured and competitive electric power industry; Enron's Ken Lay, master of political influence and market rigging; Amory Lovins, a pioneer proponent of sustainable power; and Jim Rogers, head of Duke Energy, a giant coal-fired utility threatened by decarbonization. Lambert tells how Insull built an empire in a regulatory vacuum and how the government entered the electricity marketplace by making cheap hydropower available through the TVA. He describes the failed overreach of the BPA, the rise of competitive electricity markets, Enron's market manipulation, Lovins' radical vision of a decentralized industry powered by renewables, and Rogers' remarkable effort to influence cap-and-trade legislation.
Lambert shows how the power industry has sought to use regulatory change to preserve or secure market dominance and how rogue players have gamed imperfectly restructured electricity markets. Integrating regulation and competition in this industry has proven a difficult experiment.
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Story
The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: War, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching - and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk.
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A good review of the global financial system
- By Jean on 04-22-14
By: James Rickards
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The Quest
- Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
- By: Daniel Yergin
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 29 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize. In The Quest, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change and conflict, in a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. The Quest tells the inside stories, tackles the tough questions, and reveals surprising insights about coal, electricity, and natural gas.
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Best nonfiction book of 2011
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Daniel Yergin
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13 Bankers
- The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
- By: Simon Johnson, James Kwak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Even after the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, America is still beset by the depredations of an oligarchy that is now bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks, which together control assets amounting to more than 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product, these financial institutions (now more emphatically "too big to fail") continue to hold the global economy hostage.
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Easy to Understand and Comprehend
- By Kyle on 04-11-10
By: Simon Johnson, and others
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Capitalism in America
- A History
- By: Alan Greenspan, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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From the legendary former Fed Chairman and the acclaimed Economist writer and historian, the full, epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen.
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Explains a lot
- By Scott on 02-18-19
By: Alan Greenspan, and others
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FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
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Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
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Private Empire
- ExxonMobil and American Power
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.
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Please no more accents!
- By Zak on 07-24-12
By: Steve Coll
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Windfall
- How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America's Power
- By: Meghan L. O'Sullivan
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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As a new administration focuses on raising American energy production, O'Sullivan's Windfall describes how new energy realities have profoundly affected the world of international relations and security. New technologies led to oversupplied oil markets and an emerging natural gas glut. This did more than drive down prices. It changed the structure of markets and altered the way many countries wield power and influence.
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A super-sized editorial
- By Easycfp on 10-05-18
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Building the New American Economy
- Smart, Fair, and Sustainable
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Bernie Sanders - foreward
- Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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With a nation seemingly more divided than ever, many worry that Americans risk losing ground on solving the complex, interrelated problems the country faces - including rising inequality, the specter of climate change, astronomical health care costs, and economic stagnation. The renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical approach to move America toward a new consensus: sustainable development.
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If only....
- By Baboo TH on 01-24-18
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, and others
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Stealth War
- How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept
- By: Robert Spalding
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The media often suggest that Russia poses the greatest threat to America's national security, but the real danger lies farther east. While those in power have been distracted and disorderly, China has waged a six-front war on America's economy, military, diplomacy, technology, education, and infrastructure - and they're winning. It's almost too late to undo the shocking, though nearly invisible, victories of the Chinese. In Stealth War, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding reveals China's motives and secret attacks on the West.
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A General with a backbone loaded with truth "woke"
- By Jason on 10-01-19
By: Robert Spalding
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Every Nation for Itself
- Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World
- By: Ian Bremmer
- Narrated by: Willis Sparks
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Forget the G-7 and the G-20; we are entering a leaderless "G- Zero" era- with profound implications for every country and corporation. The world power structure is facing a vacuum at the top. With the unifying urgency of the financial crisis behind us, the diverse political and economic values of the G-20 are curtailing the world's most powerful governments' ability to mediate growing global challenges. There is no viable alternative group to take its place.
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Well articulated and thought provoking
- By Mark on 08-09-12
By: Ian Bremmer
What listeners say about The Power Brokers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John Wooten
- 09-25-23
very interesting history of US power
and main influencers therein
especially good focus on capital market aspects
nice job 👍
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- Dale Sarver
- 05-19-22
the history of power utilities from Edison to 2010
this tells the story of electric.power in the US and the history of the related utility companies. it describes the success and failures of utility companies. I found it to.be very interesting and recommend it.
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- Bala
- 10-31-21
Excellent Evolutionary Discourse on US Utilities
Excellent analysis of a very complex history and evolution of the US utility enterprise. Gives a very clear economical and historical perspective of the interaction of the complex free market enterprise, bipartisan political regulatory framework and the leaders who have shaped the utility infrastructure. Without a clear understanding of these forces the transition to decarbonization of electrical utility infrastructure is not easy in US. The author gives a lucid analysis without any bias. Great read and Joe Barrett narration makes it lively. Highly recommend it to those interested in energy transition, power industry professionals and entrepreneurs entering power sectors that touches utility operating practices.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-08-24
The government-utility thesis.
This is pertinent to the electricity markets today. It wasn't complete, but it was full of high level stories.
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- Kindle Customer FB
- 01-30-24
Excellent narrative history of the US electricity sector
I learned a lot about the history of the US electricity sector starting with Samuel Insull. This is a good summary of the key issues, presenting the key arguments of all sides without apparent bias. It doesn’t go much into technical details but I felt there were no major distortions/signification. Will be of interest for people involved professionally in the sector seeking some historical perspective. Narrator is quite good on the Audible version.
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- Philo
- 10-29-18
Big chunks of the story -like several short novels
This is nothing like a comprehensive history. But the pieces are interesting in themselves. It is another USA tale of entrepreneurs (often with flamboyant or otherwise very distinctive personalities) laying in segments of infrastructure and government mixes into it with major legislation or interventions at points. So, as in other lines of business, we wind up with an odd and quirky patchwork that grew up idiosyncratically, of private and public controls.
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- Seis man
- 04-20-21
Tough subject matter
This is a good book dealing with a tough subject matter. It’s easy to get mad at all of the people discussed in the book when you look at it with hindsight.
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- N. Pappas
- 09-24-15
Interesting narrative of a complex industry
Would you consider the audio edition of The Power Brokers to be better than the print version?
Narration felt a bit folksly given the serious, non-fiction subject matter. I thought the forced accents were a bit much. Also, while I'm sure it's clear in the visual presentation, there are several sections (i.e. the intro chapter) where the narrative structure is unclear.
What other book might you compare The Power Brokers to and why?
Some of the early chapters share some overlap with The Age of Edison, while some others overlap with The Quest. I have not read anything else with this type of longitudinal review of the electric industry.
What aspect of Joe Barrett’s performance would you have changed?
I am not sure the narrator was the best choice for this book. In particular, I would not have recommended assuming the presumed accents of the individuals quoted from in the book.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Some of the early chapters, particularly those discussing struggles versus public and private utilities, felt particularly subjective. There was much focus on the political and legal tensions of the era with relatively little discussion of the technical aspects of the industry, the societal impacts of electrification, or many other facets which I believe would have been interesting. I thought Mr. Lambert made the right decision in developing the narrative around specific figures in the electric industry, though the character development was not sufficient for me to shed a tear when [spoiler alert] Sam Insull was extradited nor when Ken Lay had a heart attack. I was closest to shedding a tear following the failure of the federal cap and trade legislation.
Any additional comments?
It is clear that Mr. Lambert has had significant experience and engagement in the industry. I appreciate his efforts in sharing some of his perspectives and experience as (I presume) an energy attorney in this book. It was an interesting perspective and many of the issues present in the book are echoed in utility regulation today.
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