Sublime

It traditionally assumed that firms were independent, and so changes would be independent, and so their sizes and aggregate effects would be distributed normally.

But markets have become highly connected and computerized, so what happens in one market doesn’t stay in one market. Information now flows quickly through the system, and computerized trading algorithms can be programmed to execute trades in the blink of an eye. (Actually, eye blinks take a poky 350 milliseconds, which is slow compared to today’s a

no more need to have them enforce our contracts.

his human flock, and it was thus right and natural for his subjects to obey him

She explained that an externality was not irrelevant, but, rather, uncounted—a consequence without a cost.

The behavior of each bee in a colony is governed by a simple set of rules that, through interactions with the environment and the other bees, leads to an end that was no part of any individual bee’s intention, allowing the colony as a whole to thrive—as if by an invisible wing. Put another way, bees are relatively dumb. Beehives are remarkably smar