Click on tiltle for link to the article of interest.
While the the nation and Congress wails on about the AIG bonuses, the Federal Reserve printed more money and bought 1,000,000,000,000 in long term treasuries.
Yes another trillion dollars.
Puts the AIG bonus fiasco in perspective. Most people can understand a million dollars. They think they might understand a billion, but no one understands a trillion dollars.
The Fed bought 300 billion in treasuries, 750 billion in mortgages. This in theory should bring down the mortgage rates and help the real estate market.
But this helps to lower the value of the dollar.
The following should help put things in perspective. From http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm
What's the difference between a million, a billion, a trillion?
A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.
A million hours ago was in 1885.
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.
A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.
A trillion dollars is so large a number that only politicians can use the term in conversation... probably because they seldom think about what they are really saying. I've read that mathematicians do not even use the term trillion!
Here is some perspective on a TRILLION:
Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
The country has not existed for a trillion seconds.
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.
Million: 1,000,000
Billion: 1,000,000,000
Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
Quintillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Sextillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Nonillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Centillion: 1 followed by 303 zeros
I tried to type out a centillion and got dizzy doing it.
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/economy/19fed.html?_r=1&hp
No comments:
Post a Comment