This paper is written for a Liberty Fund conference on “Liberty in relation to law and macroeconomics.” The paper works with recognition that the models we use are not neutral devices to see more clearly into reality because they also shade that reality in different ways. For instance, a model grounded on systemic equilibrium and aggregation will almost necessarily assign turbulence to market interaction and thereby place the calming of turbulence in the province of political action simply because there is no coherent alternative. By contrast, a model where turbulence is baked into the cake of human action will recognize that human action both creates and calms turbulence, and continually, and will also recognize that the continual shifting among coalitions that is a feature of democratic politics will more strongly generate turbulence than calm it.