Failure by design: The California energy crisis and the limits of market planning

The Western U.S. energy crisis was one of the great financial disasters of the past century. Contrary to those who blame economic fundamentals, ignorant politicians, or energy sellers who "raided" the markets, Georg Rilinger focuses on the practical challenges of market design. While market designers thought they were building infrastructures to guide actors toward behavior that would produce optimal market results and facilitate grid management,  they unintentionally created a system riddled with opportunities for destructive behavior. Join us as Rillinger illuminates the California energy crisis and develops a broader theoretical framework for thinking about markets as the products of organizational planning and the limits of social engineering.