World's Assets Hit Record Value Of $140 Trillion

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 10, 2007 | JOANNA SLATER

[KarlInOhio]

" At $140 trillion in 2005, the value of the world's financial assets hit a new peak and was more than three times as large as the total output of goods and services produced across the planet that year. "

The financial assets don't just count 2007's production but also the production of future years. For example, if a bank has lent you $250,000 to buy a house that mortgage would be counted as a financial asset for the bank even though you do not intend and are not able to pay it off this year.

[Freedom4US]

Has anyone put the earth on eBay yet? I can see the thumbnail image in my mind's eye right now..

[groanup]

You are correct. Too much money chasing too few goods and services. But this has been the situation for years. This isn't new. And during those ensuing years, 2002-2003 for example, there was an actual fear of deflation. Go figure.

Historically so much liquidity has eventually produced inflation and there is no reason to believe "it's different this time". The time lag is what no one can predict.

[groanup]

Another observation, with all that liquidity in the world somebody has to invest that money. Since bond yields are so low, what is left. IMHO..., stocks.

[stuartcr]

They have assets though, don't they?

[blau993]

All I know is that when I divide the total of my personal assets by $140 trillion, I get a seriously small number.

[BubbaHeel]

Paging Africa. Hello Africa. Africa: CAN YOU READ ME?

This is the kind of comment that usually gets me banned from Free Republic, but the native Africans literally cannot compete in this arena - they simply do not have the gray matter necessary to produce anything of any use to anyone.

For background, I'd suggest La Griffe du Lion - you might start with

The Smart Fraction Theory of IQ and the Wealth of Nations

At the very end of that essay, he reproduces some average IQ figures for African nations, and, on average, it appears that those nations are populated by mildly to moderately retarded people ["experts" seem to disagree whether the cut-off point for "retardedness" should be 80 or 70]:

Zambia 77
Congo 73
Uganda 73
Sudan 72
Jamaica 72
Kenya 72
South Africa 72
Tanzania 72
Ghana 71
Nigeria 67
Zimbabwe 66
Guinea 66
Congo 65
Sierra Leone 64
Ethiopia 63
Equatorial Guinea 59

Note that those are just the AVERAGE IQ scores, so some huge tail of their IQ [probability density] bell curves must sit much farther to the left, which would be well into the severely retarded range.

Anyway, at the risk of sounding like a holier-than-thou namby-pamby do-gooder, I don't know that there's anything particularly noble about making fun of these poor people - they really are utterly helpless morons.

[JRios1968]

I can't believe I am the first to say this is all Bush's fault!

[.44 Special]

Its funny if you consider all of the wealth that is still below the surface, hydrocarbons, minerals, metals etc. If you consider all of the water on the planet and the amount minerals and precious metals dissolved in sea water, if you consider all of the gases that make of the atmosphere, plant and animal life, the entire ecosphere for that matter; the the world must be priceless as our source of life. Measurements of discovered wealth, infrastructure, and commonly accepted financial assets become irrelevant.

What price can you put on a beautiful sunset, or an oasis in the middle of a vast desert or a breath of fresh air when you have near asphyxiation?

[BubbaHeel]

stuartcr: Where is the ME?

Brad Cloven: Excepting the oil we pump for them, they don't produce anything.

stuartcr: They have assets though, don't they?

See my reply at #27.

And as there, I should preface my remarks by saying that this is the sort of thing that usually gets me banned from Free Republic.

But if you look at La Griffe du Lion's numbers, you'll see that the Arabs of the middle east have IQs that are not substantially higher than the people who populate the African continent:

Israel 94 [ 23.6% non-Jewish, mostly Arab]
Malaysia 92 [ORIENTAL MUSLIM & BUDDHIST]
Turkey 90 [TURKIC MUSLIM]
Indonesia 89 [ORIENTAL MUSLIM]
Iraq 87
Lebanon 86
Morocco 85
Iran 84 [PERSIAN MUSLIM]
Egypt 83
Qatar 78

LGdL doesn't list numbers for Saudi Arabia/Kuwait/UAE, but I imagine they're down around Egypt & Qatar.

[leadhead]

I can't believe I am the first to say this is all Bush's fault!

Well, we all thought it, oh Master of the Obvious!

[JRios1968]

My response would probably get me banned!

Bless yer heart!

[Toddsterpatriot]

There's three times as much "money" (financial assets) as there is "goods and services" to be purchased...

Think Price/Sales ratio. Altria (Philip Morris) sold $97.9 billion in fiscal 2005, the company is worth $186 billion. Bank of America had revenue of $84 billion, the company is worth $240 billion.

[Dick Vomer]

oh...assets...nevermind

[rabidralph]

I misread the headline and thought it said there was record number of asshats in the world.

[Uncle Miltie]

"they really are utterly helpless morons."

I don't doubt your numbers, but an actual education usually aids IQ development, something many of these folks don't have. Supposing a reasonably executed education, I think they'd climb quickly out of the deep hole in which they find themselves.

However, there are many impediments to the possibility of an education, most of which have a moral component. You have to not want to kill you neighboring tribe. You have to agree to a rule of law. You have to place value on an education. You have to accept science and rationality. You have to have a useful moral code. You have to rely on yourself, not the U.N. Etc.

If perchance all of these sorts of civilizing precepts were in place, then an educational system could take root, and these horrific IQ results would be greatly moderated.

Even after said civilizing and education, there is still the matter of grey matter. Brain size counts. About which, I'll leave y'all to do your own research, because ain't nobody gonna do a Thernstrom here.

[sappy]

that darn george bush!

[wideawake]

In other words, the US generates 10% of the value of the world's assets every 12 months.

And Americans own 34% of the world's assets.

[BohDaThone]

1. A "financial asset" can be completely based on hard goods. Consider if "Mr. Ford" owns every piece of dirt and metal of his auto company. He then decides to sell stock in it, for exactly the hard asset value. Presto -- a "financial asset" is created with exactly the value of the hard goods.

2. A "financial asset" can have NO hard goods component, and yet be perfectly sound. Suppose Tiger Woods decides to sell stock in his future earnings. What would quite reaonable folks pay for all the stock? 10 Million? 1 Billion? Certainly some quite large number, yet the only "real" thing is 180 pounds or so of "carbon-based life form."

3. An asset can also be full of froth. The market cap of Enron at the peak. But it can also be way under real future value. All micrsoft stock in 1986.

And others have already explained the difference between "asset value" (a stock of worth) and what it produces in any given year ("goods and services"). But here's another example. My house is worth, say, $300,000. That's a real thing, but it could also be a financial asset if I mortgage or securitize it. But it only produces "services" (equivalent rent value of the housing) of a much smaller figure. So, there us no general scam in the concept here, although any given assigned value may, of course, be inflated (or understated).