[Gunner]

A trillion dollars = $1,000,000,000,000.
If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from
earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills!
One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun.
It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar
bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.

Man, that's pretty awesome!!!

The U.S. national debt is over 10 trillion dollars.
We gave, are giving, last year almost 1 trillion dollars to the financial institutions for a bailout.
We are in the process of giving almost 1 trillion dollars as a stimulus package.

Is it just me who thinks we may have printed, begged, borrowed, or stolen much
more money than we can possibly account for or get back?

Funny but I can more easily think in terms of micro, nano and pico than
I can relate to millions, billions or trillions especially when it involves money.

[samjohnson]

Originally Posted by Gunner

Is it just me who thinks we may have printed, begged, borrowed, or stolen much
more money than we can possibly account for or get back?

I totally agree with you there!

[Albert Lionheart]

Money isn't everything but it sure helps!

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Albert Lionheart

Money isn't everything but it sure helps!

Ain't that a fact.
I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better.
Sophie Tucker

[Albert Lionheart]

WTF is Sophie Tucker??

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Albert Lionheart

WTF is Sophie Tucker??

Google, man, Google.
Sophie Tucker
She had many great quotes like
“From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents,
from 18 to 35 she needs good looks,
from 35 to 55 she needs a good personality,
and from 55 on she needs cash.”
and songs like
"Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love".

[Dr Strangelove]

I read that if they stacked up the "bail out" money in 1000 dollar bills it would go up 57 miles.

[Blackmirror]

This thread makes me want to sing
Who wants to be a trillionaire

I do

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove

I read that if they stacked up the "bail out" money in 1000 dollar bills it would go up 57 miles.

I think stacked $1000 bills would go up to the penitentiary as fake money.
$100 bill is the largest denomination made...now, although $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes are legal tender and may still be found in circulation today,
but very scarce and limited.
Of the $10,000 bills, 100 were preserved for many years by Benny Binion, the owner
of Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were sold.

[evilfantasy]

You could make everyone in the world wealthy with that much money. Debt = gone

But it's easier to give it to just a few people instead I guess...

[Albert Lionheart]

I think we should have barterable obligations - not my idea but one of Eric Frank Russell's.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally Posted by Gunner

I think stacked $1000 bills would go up to the penitentiary as fake money.
$100 bill is the largest denomination made...now, although $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes are legal tender and may still be found in circulation today,
but very scarce and limited.
Of the $10,000 bills, 100 were preserved for many years by Benny Binion, the owner
of Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were sold.

That's interesting.

I didn't know that Gunner.

[bomb #21]

Sophie Tucker: I still believe that it was Max Bygraves who once disastrously spoonerised being a "big Sophie Tucker fan" during a live broadcast.

But ... what's a trillion anything?

Or even a billion anything? Or a million?

A million; "One thousand thousand ... common to the short scale and long scale numbering systems, unlike the larger numbers, which have different names in the two systems."

A billion? Ah, now then. Isn't a UK billion a million million, whereas a US billion is a thousand million?

Not that I'll ever need to worry about it.

http://mathforum.org/~sanders/geomet...illionEtc.html

[Gunner]

I think the UK made the change in 1975 to use the same measure as the U.S.
A thousand million is a billion and a thousand billion is a trillion here (US) and there (UK).
million = 10⁶
billion = 10⁹
trillion = 10¹²
quadrillion = 10¹⁵
quintillion = 10¹⁸
hexillion = 10²¹
heptillion = 10²⁴
octillion = 10²⁷
nonillion = 10³⁰
decillion = 10³³
unodecillion = 10³⁶
duodecillion = 10³⁹
After that it's a lot.

[bomb #21]

Good shout on the date.

HC Deb 20 December 1974 vol 883 cc711-2W 711W

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop asked the Prime Minister whether he will make it the practice of his administration that when Ministers employ the word "billion" in any official speeches, documents, or answers to Parliamentary Questions, they will, to avoid confusion, only do so in its British meaning of 1 million million and not in the sense in which it is used in the United States of America, which uses the term "billion" to mean 1,000 million.

The Prime Minister
No. The word "billion" is now used internationally to mean 1,000 million and it would be confusing if British Ministers were to use it in any other sense. I accept that it could still be interpreted in this country as 1 million million and I shall ask my colleagues to ensure that, if they do use it, there should be no ambiguity as to its meaning.

"BILLION" (DEFINITION) (Hansard, 20 December 1974)

[bomb #21]

Originally Posted by evilfantasy

You could make everyone in the world wealthy with that much money. Debt = gone

But it's easier to give it to just a few people instead I guess...

... is why I asked.

Last year there was a "£50bn plan to shore up the banks". I thought a couple of times afterwards, "wouldn't that make every UK individual rich?".

But since a billion's "only" a thousand million, that's c.£700 per person, rather than ¾ million.

[wladicus]

Originally Posted by Gunner

... much more money than we can possibly account for or get back? ...

That's all right Gunner.
Not to worry, there is a lot of money in the world - never a shortage.
And then the government can always print some more. (Don't they do that anyway?)
Those trillions are a reflection of the productivity potential of every human being on planet earth - because we invented the monetary systems of the world to have a material form of exchange to account for human productivity potential.
Therefore, if there is all that money somewhere out there on this planet (there must be, if governments are so much in debt), then each and every person on this planet is potentially extremely rich (every mattress in the world should be stuffed with millions of dollars).