“He’s got $13 million in.” That’s what employees of then-millionaire Elon Musk would tell recruits of X.com, the virtual bank he founded in 1999 that eventually became PayPal. Earlier that year, the sale of Mr. Musk’s first startup, Zip2, netted him roughly $21 million, much of which he invested in an effort to disrupt banking, investing and payment systems.

From when Elon Musk was very young he “plotted an escape from his surroundings and dreamed of a place that would allow his personality and dreams to flourish.” Those are the words of Ashlee Vance, from his 2015 biography of the remarkable entrepreneur. According to Vance, Musk “saw America in its most clichéd form, as the land of opportunity and the most likely stage for making the realization of his dreams possible.”

It’s hard to fathom now given the debased nature of the monetary discussion today, but when Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, a standard line in his speeches was that “No nation in history has survived fiat money, money that did not have precious metal backing.” Translated for those who need it, Reagan was calling for a dollar defined in terms of the most stable commodity the world has ever known: gold.

When political panic over the coronavirus resulted in hideous, wholly superfluous lockdowns back in March of 2020, not everyone suffered. As is well-known now, #richmanscoronavirus afforded the well-to-do a chance to relax a little, spend more time with kids who were similarly sidelined, read and cook, and basically do all manner of things that weren’t possible in the days before panic, and when work was conducted in offices.

Will President Biden seek to repeal the $10,000 cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, known as SALT? Many conservatives say the SALT cap, part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, should remain in place because repeal would primarily aid high-income households in Democratic states. Open and shut case for Republicans, right? Not so fast.

In Finland, there is a sigh of relief when children accidentally hurt themselves. Just as many U.S. cities and states have certain unique claims to fame, so do most countries. In Finland, one cultural oddity is that parents don’t frantically help their children avoid mistakes. Error is embraced because it signals rapid learning.

In a sense, great minds are their own worst enemy. And surely the worst enemy of broad health and prosperity. They are because one or many great minds are surely no match for the collective wisdom of the proverbial crowd. The crowd is the market. William F. Buckley intuited the latter very well when he quipped that he’d rather be governed by the first few hundred names in the Boston phone book than by professors at MIT and Harvard.

Imagine a future defined by the past. For the purpose of When Politicians Panicked, imagine a future of laughing, cheering, joyous crowds at amusement parks, concerts, and sporting events.