Here's what 1.3 trillion dollars looks like

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Thank you Idiot America for putting us in a position where we have to come up with this to fund your buying beyond your means.

[Jim Richards]

Oooh, that's sooo very helpful. Now I understand all this complicated money stuff.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Well it's better than that Denver reporter saying it was 20,000 high-rise buildings or whatever. The image is a little more compelling - at least I think so.

[Aurel]

Just create the $10,000 bill and you guys will be just fine...

Aurel

[onewhippedpuppy]

I think that's how the payment should happen too. Truckloads of money.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

More likely that one will flip over on the highway and spill its contents. Didja hear about the millions of nickels spilled on I95 in Florida last week? Hilarious. If that'd happened around here you'd have had riots breaking out so the deadbeats could go stuff their pockets with $20 worth of change.

You have to admit - more "smaller value" currency (or coinage) is better for security simply because it's so impractical to move.

[Fritz Peyerl]

I think any of those Bank and finacial institutions Directors, Presidents and Upper management should be put into jail and their personal properties should be sold of.

How can a president get a bonus of 22 million dollars and the institution is broke.

[andrew15]

If there was a trillion dollar bill, I could fit all of it in my wallet.

I'm not going to be convinced there is a problem, until I hear the bailout amount in nickels weighs more than the moon

AM

[Jim Richards]

I wonder...is there enough room on a standard sized piece of US paper currency to fit all the zeros of a trillion dollar bill?

[lyon]

What really sucks is that the dollar has lost 75% of its value, since 2000.
So not we are literally working for 25 cents on the dollar.

So when you head over to London and exchange your dollars to Pounds, get ready for a shock. When you want to buy a beer at a pub, with that exchanged dollar, the beer will cost you a small fortune.
After this bailout, this same beer in London might cost you $30+.

[widebody911]

I caught the tail end of a Q&A on NPR yesterday. I missed hearing who was fielding the questions, but one caller asked if the $700B would further devalue the dollar and increase inflationary pressure; the guy answered "no" but then proceeded to explain how the FED creates money out of thin air and injects it into the system.

We're screwed.

Here's the link to the segment, sorta - it's audio-only, and I can't even get it to play http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94900655

[Palum6o]

I heard that yesterday as well, apparently the fed will balance the dollar by selling off securites resulting in a 'redistribution'. Still though, how do you balance a trillion more dollars?

[Heel n Toe]

Okay, I just heard on the radio that the federal government is taking over the NFL, the NBA, MLB, NASCAR, all the radio and TV stations, newspapers, magazines, and the internet and will be confiscating all the profits because this is the only way to keep our country afloat financially.

Just kidding.

Here's a way to understand billions and trillions.

A million dollars is a thousand $1000 bills.

A billion dollars is a million $1000 bills.

A trillion dollars is a billion $1000 bills.

For how many nickels that is, multiply by 20.

[Super_Dave_D]

I only understand when I am told how many times it will circumvent the world or how many times to the moon and back. The building, car, man relationship screws me up!

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

I wonder...is there enough room on a standard sized piece of US paper currency to fit all the zeros of a trillion dollar bill?

Obviously that depends on how small you print them.

[Heel n Toe]

It's not that many zeros.


1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000 (million)

1,000,000 x 1000 = 1,000,000,000 (billion)

1,000,000,000 x 1000 = 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)

[targa911S]

I have a trillion dollar bill, can anybody make change for me?

[kach22i]

How much would it cost to print that much money?

How many trees would have fall?

Good thing it's all electronic money.

[TyFenn]

Another way to understand exactly how much a trillion is to put that amount in the time frame of seconds. That's a trillion seconds. To go that far back, it would be before the times of the Roman Empire and even BEFORE the Chinese dynasties...or roughly prehistoric times.

A very respected economist, in my opinion, Thomas Sowell wrote an excellent opinion piece in today's Investor's Business Daily. This is his conceptualization (sp?). To be sure, the above idea is his and no mine. I recommend reading the article to get an idea of just how much it really is...staggering to say the least.

[M.D. Holloway]

Isn't there a country in Africa with 1 million percent inflation where a loaf of bread costs a billion beads or something and the villagers pay with wheelbarrows full of the 'money'?