For a crowd to be smart, the people in it need to be not only diverse in their perspectives but also, relatively speaking, independent of each other. In other words, you need people to be thinking for themselves, rather than following the lead of those around them.

I think people don't understand compound interest because typically no one ever explains it to them and the level of financial literacy in the US is very low.

Since the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland wants to remain a part of Great Britain, and since Ireland itself has shown little interest in reunification, the IRA's prospects for success through political channels have always been limited.

Sometimes even a smart crowd will make a mistake.

Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a few days and you'll be thin for life.

If companies tell us more, insider trading will be worth less.

Of course, presidents are always blamed or rewarded for the state of the economy.