Amid all the immediate stuff about the pandemic is a sensible and logical long-term strategy from the White House. The Trump administration has declared that all those resources out there in space should be exploitable as private property. This might not sound like much, but it’s the essential precondition of anyone doing anything with any of it.

Current law about all those rocks out there in space says that they’re a common resource, open to all humanity. Which is nice, sure it is, but it’s also law that was put in place back in the late 1960s. Back then, those not addled with LSD were trying to levitate the Pentagon with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman — not a great time for sound economic policy.