John Law was like the Sam Bankman of the day, the yardstick thing point is a good one, though.

it reminds me of my russian father in law who talks about how someones salery is now 70k rubles when it used to be 30k rubles

and i always try and explain that, when measured in USD, the person actually is making less than they were a decade ago.

of course in that case, the ruble is the shitty yardstick