Feng shui, which translates as wind and water, has a big following in Asia and many companies also pay heed to its principles when designing their office spaces and buildings to maximise wealth and positive energy.

"Leaders whose goal is the quest for power over others, maximizing wealth or becoming famous tend to look to other people for satisfaction and acknowledgment of their status," Mr. George writes.

According to the Modigliani-Miller theorem, on the other hand, there is no right ratio, so corporate managers should seek to minimize tax liability and maximize corporate net wealth, letting the debt ratio chips fall where they will.

This approach urges the adoption of laws that maximize wealth.

The primary difference between profit and non-profit organizations is that "for-profit" organizations look to maximize wealth versus non-profit organizations, which look to provide a greater good to society.

Life planning, which "effectively drops the assumption that the adviser's role is to maximize wealth," is becoming mainstream, the magazine writes.

Smith addressed the motivation for economic activity, the causes of prices and the distribution of wealth, and the policies the state should follow in order to maximise wealth.

The emphasis is on maximising wealth as such, based on calculations in terms of abstract price relations.

They say they're working day and night to maximize wealth in our economy by redistributing corporate assets to more efficient managers.

Thus in the risk neutral case, expected utility of wealth is simply equal to a linear function of expected wealth, and maximizing it is equivalent to maximizing expected wealth itself.