Davis himself went against his own best instincts and earlier statements that he wouldn’t allow the bubble money to create ongoing obligations. As far as Enron profiteers, Davis was their enabler and best friend. That’s because even a market that’s being manipulated is still a market and market incentives continue to matter. Davis had no real power to stop the manipulators through regulation. That was a federal responsibility and failure. But his refusal to pass through the costs of that manipulation to ratepayers, instead concealing it from them by and, in effect, putting instead on their utility credit cards without their consent, both kept utility consumers from reacting to prices they didn’t realize they would eventually bear as well as subduing the potential political effect of what would have been millions of angry voters-consumers from coming to bear on Washington, where something could have been done. What we got from Davis was ineffective bluster instead of an admission of his own limitations and need to bring market forces, both economic and political, to bear on the situation.