Referring to the dichotomy between a real and a virtual economy, Baudrillard writes that “the sphere of virtual capital has become so autonomous, so orbitalized, that it can in some cases proliferate—or even devour itself—without leaving any trace… Between the two spheres [of the virtual and the real], there is no longer any communication… It is this break between the two, this loss of a referent on the part of the virtual economy, which enables it to produce prodigious effects, but it is also this which protects the real economy from the catastrophes which may occur in the other sphere.”
