You Wouldn't Have Wanted to Be a Billionaire in 1916

Having bestowed the presidency on a candidate who described their country as a hellhole besieged by multitudes trying to get into it, Americans need an antidote for social hypochondria. Fortunately, one has arrived from Don Boudreaux, an economist at George Mason University's Mercatus Center and proprietor of the indispensable blog Cafe Hayek. He has good news: You are as rich as John D. Rockefeller. Richer, actually. Some historians estimate that on September 29, 1916, a surge in the price of Rockefeller's shares of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey made him America's first billionaire. Others say he never reached this milestone and that Henry Ford was the first ...