I’ve analyzed a series of Environmental Impact Bonds (DC Water, Atlanta, FRB etc.) and, to be brutally honest, the common characteristic they all share is ‘ineffectiveness’. Despite gushing PR, they’re all too expensive, too small, and too idiosyncratic to accomplish anything other than buzz itself. An expensive and misleading form of advertising or virtue signalling.

But they’re not necessarily ‘pointless’. What I also see is that some components of the deals might, if incorporated in more efficient structures, might actually be useful while losing nothing of their virtue. In fact, their virtuous quality can cast a helpful, consensus-building glow on the efficient parts (which tend to be pretty boring). Example is below (click for PDF), adapted from a presentation I did in the summer: