“40% of world wealth, gone” – if it’s ‘vanished into thin air’ it was never cash and wasn’t really wealth. If it was really cash, it’s just in someone else’s pockets now. Real wealth wont evaporate, just pretend wealth like ‘my house is worth $XXX.’ But you need to live in that house, so that house is priceless until someone else is pouring money into it, so it’s not really worth anything to anyone but you.
In the crash, I lost about 5% of my ‘wealth’ but it wasn’t really money until I yanked it the fuck out of the money market account and parked it in a bank. Last I checked I would have lost 40% of that account or more, but it would have been more in dollar terms than what my grandpa originally invested. Now, it’s probably worth even less. But I took that money and put in in the bank, and then used it to put a roof over my head.
That’s wealth.