What Earth is made of

Constituents

Earth's market cap is a sum of non-overlapping slices of real wealth. Each is valued from a named source; the live-market slices are marked daily, the structural ones accrete between annual vintages.

Headline constituents — summed to $1.88 quadrillion

Shown, but not added — they net to zero

Financial claims

A bond, a loan, a bank deposit, a dollar of broad money, a derivative contract — each is simultaneously someone's asset and someone else's liability or bet. Summed across the whole planet they cancel to zero, so we report them as context and never add them to the headline. Two traps in particular: the ~$700T derivatives "notional" is a reference amount, not wealth (net value ~$3T), and the various money supplies (M0, M1, M2, broad) are nested subsets of each other, not separate piles. Adding any of these is the most common way to get Earth's market cap badly wrong.

Bonds & debt securities $160T

The world's tradable bonds — government and corporate debt securities (~$145T). Every bond is simultaneously someone's asset and someone else's liability, so it is shown but never added. · Source BIS debt securities statistics; SIFMA
Loans & other debt $188T

Borrowing that isn't a tradable bond — bank loans, mortgages and other credit (~$170T). With bonds, this is the ~$315T of total global debt. Each loan is also an asset to its lender, so it nets out. · Source IIF Global Debt Monitor
Cash & bank deposits $133T

Cash plus bank deposits worldwide (broad money, ~$120T). Narrower aggregates — base money / M0, M1 — are nested subsets, not separate piles. Each dollar is a liability of the banking system, so it is shown but not summed. · Source FRED / central-bank monetary aggregates
Derivatives $25T

The 'quadrillion-dollar derivatives market' is a NOTIONAL figure (~$700T, BIS) — a reference amount, not wealth. Gross market value is ~$25T; net of offsetting positions, ~$3T. Every contract is a zero-sum bet, so it nets to zero. · Source BIS OTC derivatives statistics