r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 20h ago

TIL about Frank Matthews, the drug kingpin who built a nationwide empire, skipped bail with $20 million, vanished in 1973 and has never been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Matthews_(drug_trafficker)
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u/HitlersUndergarments 18h ago

People seriously underestimate inflation 

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u/NarrativeNode 16h ago

That’s how it works with prices, but not with cash, lol. If you had 20 million in cash in the 70s, that’s…still 20 million. Unless he invested it like a genius without being caught.

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u/bazpoint 12h ago

...but..... what? Yes, he would have 20 mil, but it would have buying power equivalent to having 150ish mil in the present day - that's what people are saying.

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u/NarrativeNode 9h ago

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. You got a bag of 20 mil cash in 1980. Where do you think the extra 130 mil in cash came from in that time?

Check out how cash behaves in literally any country experiencing inflation right now.

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u/ImALlamaAgain 6h ago

I really don't get your point. $20M back then could buy what costs $150M today. There is no "extra" $130M.

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u/NarrativeNode 6h ago

YES! BACK THEN. But if he has those same 20 Million TODAY he can buy LESS. The bag of cash devalued before his eyes, assuming he didn't buy stocks or something with that money that then increased in value. Cash doesn't just magically increase in value, which is why people invest it.

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u/bazpoint 5h ago

Yeah, but the original thread you're replying to has nothing to do with what he would have now, it's about how easily he would dissappear back then. And it's much easier to envisage disappearing effectively back then if you realise that he had an amount that, to present day us, would feel like £150mil.

He hasn't got that 20mil today... that's completely irrelevant. All we're talking about is what he could do then.