Business writers, please stop comparing market value to GDP

Apple’s market valuation rose above $1 trillion on Thursday last week — a huge symbolic milestone. The business media handled the story in two predictable ways: First, it made far too much of what is ultimately a meaningless number (the odometer-flip is certainly worthy of note, but $1 trillion doesn’t mean much more in terms of Apple’s value than $999,999,999,999 does).