Is Apple worth more than Poland?
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2012
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Harford explains why the technology giant Apple is not bigger than Poland, as media reports have claimed. And he scrutinises the claim that the Millennium Development Goal on safe drinking water has been achieved ahead of schedule. The World Health Organisation, which along with Unicef announced that the target had been met, concedes that the numbers are not actually that certain. This programme was originally broadcast on the BBC World Service.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:04.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to BBCWorldService.com |
| 0:10.0 | slash podcasts. |
| 0:13.0 | You're listening to a download from the BBC. |
| 0:16.0 | This is more or less that mathematical icing on the cake of life. |
| 0:20.0 | We make an addition of the program for BBC Radio 4, but this is a download of a special |
| 0:25.0 | addition broadcast on the World Service. |
| 0:29.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, |
| 0:33.0 | where you're weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Halford. |
| 0:37.0 | This week we investigate whether the global target on access to clean drinking water |
| 0:42.0 | really has been met as has been claimed. |
| 0:45.0 | But first, is the world's biggest company really this big? |
| 0:49.0 | At $500 billion, Apple is worth more than Poland. |
| 0:55.0 | CNN started this story and it was picked up by news organisations around the world. |
| 1:00.0 | It seems like an amazing fact that Apple stock market value or market cap |
| 1:05.0 | of $506 billion makes it worth more than Poland, |
| 1:09.0 | whose gross domestic product, or GDP, is around $470 billion. |
| 1:14.0 | And that would make it one of the world's top 20 economies. |
| 1:18.0 | The only trouble is, it's not true. |
| 1:21.0 | It's nonsense to compare the two like this. |
| 1:24.0 | You might as well compare pairs and apples. |
| 1:27.0 | This is because the market value of a company is linked to the expected value of all future profits. |
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