Since somtimes absurd amounts of wealth have and had been accumulated by certain individuals vs. the rest in any given population, on wonders why the term "financial obesity" has not been coined as of yet. In fact there are stunning similarities between excess body weight and overly swollen bank accounts and all the other vehicles and crevices that that super wealthy store their "fat". Like many other medical conditions, financial obesity seems to be the result of an interplay between genetic and environmental factors.
The ability to take advantage of rare periods of abundance by storing financial fat would be advantageous during times of varying food availability, and individuals with greater adipose reserves would be more likely survive famine. This tendency to store fat, however, is maladaptive in societies with stable food supplies. Another observation is, that the kids of wealthy parents are more likely to accumulate excess wealth: 80% of the offspring of two obese parents are obese, in contrast to less than 10% of the offspring of two parents who were of normal weight.
On a deeper level (say when it comes to functions as basic as those that are controlled by the hypothalamus), food and money certainly correlate. The hypothalamus controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, anger and circadian cycles. Money likewise could be seen as an extremely important "control hormone".
Maybe, in that respect a "monetary thyroid hyperfunction" is a better term for that disease . Either way, here a list of some exceptionally unfortunate individuals, that suffer from a severely imbalanced "monetary metabolism":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_billionaires



