correct, Wells Fargo's market cap is 267 billion, 30% bigger than Facebook. They can pretty much do whatever they want
They're richer than Facebook, sure. But at many non-tech companies, spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to build a solid library is simply not in the cards. (Why should we spend so much on engineers? All they're doing is slapping together some HTML, my nephew in high school does that!)
Hasn't been the case for years (and I'm pretty sure it was never the case actually). They are valued by their assets (funds in accounts, real estate holdings, equity in companies/investments, etc). Facebook's valuation appears to be based on nothing but magic.
And this is the most ridiculous thing in those bailouts. You manage responsibly and competently and, in return, you get government funded competition.
There should be a better way.
In other words, such valuation of a big corporation has little to do with the direct utility to, or meaning for a single individual.
It's like a red blood-cell wondering why the eye is so highly valued compared to the liver.
When did Facebook become the benchmark? Facebook is tiny compared to an awful lot of companies.