Honestly, some things are so incredible they boggle the mind. Cases in point: Actor Steven Seagal is pondering running for governor of Arizona and Walmart’s revenues are greater than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 174 countries.

I’m a big Steven Seagal fan. Seagal, who acts in martial arts movies, makes the kind of tough-guy cinema that is fun to watch precisely because it’s so over the top. One would never mention Seagal in the same sentence with “Academy Award” or “Best Actor nominee.” A typical Seagal movie will have him holding his own against scores of bad guys and ne’er-do-wells and winning the day against all odds. A car or two is probably going to get blown up as well.

Now, however, in a storyline that tops anything Seagal does in the movies, he’s actually thinking about running for Arizona’s top state job. Seagal has apparently been hanging out with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the controversial lawman from Arizona, and getting advice concerning throwing his hat into the ring. Steven Seagal and Joe Arpaio talking political strategy: Nothing could possibly go wrong there, right? Gov. Steven Seagal: three words that are more offbeat than “Look honey, UFO!”

Speaking of out of this world, a guy named Sam Smith recently wrote an essay in which he cited some startling facts about corporate life in America. According to him, Walmart stores have revenues that exceed the GDP of Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and about 170 other countries. (The GDP represents the market value of a country’s goods and services.) According to Smith, if Walmart was a country it would be the 22nd largest.

Likewise, Shell had bigger revenues than the combined GDPs of Pakistan and Bangladesh, two countries with a total population of 350 million, and Ford is bigger than New Zealand. Forty-four companies in America generated $6.4 trillion in 2009, the equivalent to more than 11 percent of global GDP. Smith said that’s more than the combined economies of 155 countries.

Me, I can fathom a bloated actor entering politics for a term or two. But bloated companies and corporations don’t have any term limits as such. It makes a person wonder what the end result will be. Maybe something akin to the Greek myth about the guy who cut down an oak in a sacred grove. The goddess whose grove it was had Famine visit him and, while he slept, Famine planted hunger inside him. His curse was that no amount of food could ever take away his overwhelming desire for food. In the end, he devoured himself and died.

Bob Morgan is a retired, award-winning journalist and an author.