One of Texas’ most prominent left-leaning economists knows exactly why its power grid failed

One of Texas’ most prominent left-leaning economists knows exactly why its power grid failed

Millions of Texans lost power last week and were stuck living in freezing conditions as their electrical bills skyrocketed. The crisis was totally preventable, according to a left-leaning economist who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, and the reason why has to do with the state's deregulated electricity system.

James Kenneth Galbraith, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in a Project Syndicate commentary that these failures were baked into Texas' power grid as soon it embraced deregulation under former Gov. Rick Perry in 2002. 

The Texas system had three vulnerabilities, according to his commentary:

Rather than working to overcome the vulnerabilities, Galbraith wrote, policymakers did nothing. And he has a unique perspective on the matter of government regulation. His father was famed 20th-century economist John Kenneth Galbraith, a former Harvard professor and advisor to several Democratic administrations, who long advocated thoughtful government intervention “” and regulation.

John Galbraith's views came back into vogue after the Great Recession of 2008, and James' work in Texas has long swum against the state's deregulatory tide, a fact brought into vivid relief by the current power crisis. In his own right, James has formerly served as executive director for the Joint