[brndnmtthws]

A good book to read for anyone interested in economics is called "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy", by Mervyn King, who was head of the Bank of England for about 10 years and during the financial crises of 2007-8. In the book, he discusses "the alchemy of money" which he roughly defines as how money isn't necessarily backed by any tangible assets. A lot of what happens in the banking system is pure alchemy. A fascinating read IMO.

[downrightmike]

I think you'd like this overview of England's South Sea Company and how John Blunt used all kinds of now illegal monetary fraud to become England's largest company, worth more than their GDP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kndKWJKB8

[beojan]

> become England's largest company, worth more than their GDP:

In case people don't realize, GDP is the total amount a country produces per year, not the total value of the country. There's nothing impossible about a country's largest company being worth more than it's GDP.

[downrightmike]

There's still a long way to go to do that: With that market cap, Apple is worth nearly 1% of the world’s GDP according to the latest estimates from the World Bank that peg the world’s output at $74.2 trillion. That also means the company is valued at close to 4.4% of America’s $18 trillion GDP. https://www.investopedia.com/news/apple-now-bigger-these-5-t...

[beojan]

Saudi Aramco is worth 1 to 5 times Saudi Arabia's GDP.

[downrightmike]

What is most interesting about the South Sea Company, is that they didn't actually produce anything. They had rights to send one ship to Spanish ports for trade in the new world, but the ports would turn them away because the port authorities didn't want them/didn't believe them. Vs exporting oil which now heavily used.