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There is no "law of conservation of money" and total asset values are definitely not conserved. See my recent diary on liquidity risk, How much is $172 trillion worth?
So, no, 90 million shares are definitely not worth 90 million times the share price, unless you can enter into a deal over the counter (off the exchange) with someone else who would like to own 1% of M$. And, most definitely, the entirety of the shares of Micro$oft are not immediately worth $271bn even though 1000-share lots (see the "bid" and "ask" in the Yahoo! Finance screen capture) can be quickly bought and sold at the share price.


When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Apr 8th, 2008 at 05:19:09 AM EST
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Strickly speaking, money is not conserved, I agree. But the change is in interest rates, mostly. Those who seld stock or real estate at the most opportune time did get the big money, without much risk and charges. Tell them about a crisis.
by das monde on Tue Apr 8th, 2008 at 10:05:29 PM EST
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