It means that the economy and the way its measured is really based on parasitic scam. All of a nations wealth springs from its soil, the rest is manipulation of one form or another. Some of it is honest effort converting raw to finished but much is just one version or another of a con game with paper.
Agriculture, manufacture, and mining are the root source of all wealth. Everything else is a derivative based upon these three critical activities. Political influence controls the where and the who which benefit from the wealth created.