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Re:Chinese Markets Halted, Equities Plunge Another 7% by hodwik on Thursday January 07, 2016 @02:09PM (#10859993)
The units aren't the same. The shorthand for the units is the same.

A dollar of market cap is very different from a dollar of GDP, like a cubic meter of lead is different from a cubic meter of air.

What we're talking about is the value (or weight); the denomination (or volume) is irrelevant.

The value of a dollar GDP is considerably more tangible than a dollar market cap.

Re:Chinese Markets Halted, Equities Plunge Another 7% by Ari_Rahikkala on Thursday January 07, 2016 @02:16PM (#10860023)
In particular: The unit of GDP is in fact dollars/year (even if people rarely bother reporting the precise unit), whereas market cap is just dollars. They're as incomparable as velocity and position.