These are great examples. One other non-disaster one I love is the Irish Bank Strike. The banks didn’t like some regulation so they decided to go on strike thinking it would bring the economy to its knees.

It didn’t. People used cash to buy things, and if they needed bigger purchases they just used their existing checkbooks. If there was a question about someone’s credit they’d go down to the pub and the pub owner would vouch for the person writing the check.

Eventually the banks gave up and reopened.