[AtlasBarfed]

Well, the banks do this as a part of business, knowing the US will bail them out when their insider trading house of cards crash down.

Flood insurance for a house purchase is very different from a afterthought utility bill that, really, you have no "choice" on procuring.

[brianwawok]

Wait, but you did have a choice in picking this utility bill. Your choice was:

a) (default choice): Use as much power you as you want, 12c a kWh, it never changes.

b) (other supplier choice): Pay market rate! Currently only 9c a kWh, save 3c per kWh! (Until this event, when it went to $1000 a kWh).

Consumer opted into B to save some cash, but got hit with the downside of their bet.

[Spooky23]

...and somehow everyone is surprised that consumers do a bad job at assessing risk.

It’s an unconscionable business model with no guardrails. Commercial users don’t sign up for rates like that without breakers or hedges.

[brianwawok]

And commercial users tend to be more sophisticated.

So then we just ban users from such programs?

(I don't know the answer, but this ends up down a pretty strict path of not letting you hurt yourself).