## Saturday, 7 March 2009

### Take a Look at a Trillion Dollars

In this period of huge financial losses and bailouts, people throw numbers like a trillion dollars around rather casually. I am reminded of the quote by someone ?? who said, "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon that adds up to real money."
Well, I came across a nice illustration of what a trillion dollars would look like on a page over at Page Tutor and I copied a couple of the pictures to give you an idea:

"We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go. A packet of one hundred$100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun. " Here is what$1 million dollars would look like:

"While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive,$100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet..."

With 100 of those pallets, you would have \$1 billion dollars... now we are talking real money.

And then????
"Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing about so much. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros. And notice those pallets are double stacked.)"

Look carefully, there in the bottom left corner is our six-foot tall human, dwarfed by the staggering ocean of money... That's fifty pallets wide, 100 pallets deep, and two pallets high.... 10,000 pallets of 100 milliion each..... so next time someone talks about a trillion dollar bailout...close your eyes and imagine this warehouse full of money.
Now where did I park my fork lift?