Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.11.17 (plus richest people in history)

It's summation time again with jobless claims remaining low but stocks having an unusually rough week, the S&P especially hit hard and having its biggest weekly decline since March as a reaction to "fire and fury."  It does disturb me a bit that "nuclear war postponed (for now)" is listed as a positive, as such a postponement is neither a done deal nor anything to be taken lightly.  For this Sunday's entertainment I present a fun article profiling the richest people in history which shouldn't surprise anyone would include such iconic figures as Caesar Augustus and the Medicis.  Enjoy perusing the detailed graphic provided as we launch into a new week of sun and fun (and hopefully more nuclear war postponement.)

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.11.17

August 11, 2017 5:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending August 11th, 2017

Positives:

1.Nuclear war postponed (for now)
2. Jobless claims remain low at 244k, with the 4-week moving average down to 241k.
3. MBA mortgage composite index rose 3% w/o/w.
4. NFIB small business optimism index rose from 103.6 to 105.2, higher than the 103.2 expected.
5. Special Prosecutor seems to be making progress…

Negatives:

1. US stocks had a rough week, as the S&P 500 experienced its largest weekly decline since March.
2. Headline producer prices fell 0.1% in most recent report — first m/o/m decrease of the year.
3. Consumer prices also remain soft, rising just 0.1% m/o/m and 1.7% y/o/y.
4. Nonfarm productivity rose at a SAAR of 0.9%, on the low end of the expected range.

 

Infographic: The Richest People in Human History

Infographic: The Richest People in History

The Richest People in History

(UP UNTIL THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION)

 

When we think of wealth today, we often think of the massive personal fortunes of business magnates like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett. However, it is only since the Industrial Revolution that measuring wealth by one’s bank account has been a norm for the world’s richest.

For most of recorded human history, in fact, the lines around wealth were quite blurred. Leaders like Augustus Caesar or Emperor Shenzong had absolute control of their empires – while bankers like Jakob Fogger and Cosimo de Medici were often found pulling the strings from behind.

This infographic focuses on the richest people in history up until the Industrial Revolution – and in the coming weeks, we will release a second version that covers wealth from then onwards (including figures like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jeff Bezos, etc.).

  

IS THIS LIST OF PEOPLE DEFINITIVE?

While it is certainly fun to speculate on the wealth of people from centuries past, putting together this list is exceptionally difficult and certainly not definitive.

Here’s why:

Firstly, much wealth in early periods is tied to land (Genghis Khan) or entire empires (Augustus, Akbar), which makes calculations extremely subjective. What is most of Asia’s land worth in the year 1219? What separates personal fortune from the riches of an empire that one has full control of? There are a wide variety of answers to these questions, and they all influence the figures chosen to be represented.

Secondly, records kept from Ancient eras are scarce, exaggerated, or based on legends and oral histories. Think of King Solomon or Mansa Musa – these are characters described asimmeasurably rich, so trying to put their wealth in modern context is fun, but certainly not guaranteed to be historically accurate.

Lastly, wealth and conversion rates can be approached in different ways as well. Take Crassus in the Roman Republic, who had a peak fortune of “200 million sesterces”. Well, that’s a problem for us in modernity, because that stash could be worth anywhere from $200 million to $169.8 billion, depending on how calculations are done.

So, enjoy this list of the wealthiest historical figures, but keep in mind that it is mostly for fun – and that the list of the wealthiest people in history changes depending on who you ask!

 

ABOUT THE MONEY PROJECT

The Money Project uses intuitive visualizations to explore ideas around the very concept of money itself. Founded in 2015 by Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals, the Money Project will look at the evolving nature of money, and will try to answer the difficult questions that prevent us from truly understanding the role that money plays in finance, investments, and accumulating wealth.