[JasonC]

Real wealth can, emphatically, be destroyed, and it can be created. It is created primarily by intelligent cooperation, and it is destroyed by wasted efforts and disarranged plans. The actual scale of real wealth destruction is an order of magnitude smaller than the article's headline number, because most of that figure just reflects changes in discounting rates and inflation expectations, together resulting in a huge rise in the real rate of discount being applied to future real earnings. But there is also some outright destruction of wealth, from firms that were working that have disappeared, from people not working at all, and from other dislocated plans. Much of that needed to happen because people's efforts were misdirected at past prices. But it involves a real loss, not just a transfer.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

yeah ok, but not by changing a few numbers on some computer screens - which is the thrust of the article

real wealth is lost when people sit on their backsides or break stuff sure, and there has been a bit of that, but 40% is just lies