[jeffool]

It could, but you also have to consider the cost of getting these materials back to Earth. No article has mentioned the details of that. I don't know if Planetary Resources has disclosed that. And then there's extracting the material. Yes, the sheer scope does mean a huge wealth... But it costs to access. And until I hear a professional suggest a price tag on that, I'm not too worried about it destroying economies.

(Or maybe they could extract it in space... But that would need new first gen technology, but at least retrieval from space may pay off in the long run, as they'll no doubt require space extraction eventually.)