Never assume to great conspiratorial plans what common stupidity can explain more easily!
Someone pointed that out right after the 2003 blackout, and they were pretty-much correct.
In this case, it's probably a combination of things related to both stupidity and perhaps some low-level conspiratorial plans. I think the plan was to put a little bump in the economy and blame Bush, but the real economy was at a point where it was ripe for a downturn. Getting a few socialist friends to pump up the price of gas at the right time, while talking down a couple of weak financial institutions (along with some well-timed shorting of certain stocks) was supposed to put a ripple in the economy. The ripple was, perhaps, much larger than anticipated. Things were much more leveraged than the co-conspirators had thought.
On the human level, never attribute to malice that which could be explained by sheer stupidity and ignorance.
However, step back one more level to the spiritual level, and such stupidity and ignorance are deliberate tools of the Father of Lies.