Putting Norway’s Billions in Perspective

In the classic science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the method of torture on Frogstar World B is to show individuals just how insignificant they are when compared to the universe. The result is often death.

Norges Bank Investment Management, the agency tasked with managing Norway’s oil wealth, is the asset-owner equivalent of that. At $850 billion, it dwarfs almost all other pools of capital on the earth—and, even for the average financier, is an entirely incomprehensible number. So just how big is $850 billion?