Your rational undoubtedly applies post-hoc, Will, but as most people are incapable of the kind of reasoning tacitly assumed in your article it’s highly implausible to propose that the panic buying we saw was the result of rational calculation. People are simple herd creatures, we do what we see others doing, and as history has shown far too many times to count, we simply panic en mass when induced to do so (which is simple to achieve) and the consequences are always predictable, though no one wants to hear it.