Here Is Some Simple Arithmetic - A Trillion $

I heard several months ago that the amount for TARP, Lehman Bros, etc (all of the items prior to the early 2009 $787B Stimulus plan) was $1.28T which, if in $100 denominations, would weigh 7000 tons or the same weight as all of the steel used to build the Eiffel Tower.  Absolutely incredible and difficult for the Average Joe to comprehend.  Sorry, not just the Average Joe, but the average college-educated, lawyerly Congress Person who obviously does not have an inkling about what a $1T is.


And this from the May 10, 2010 Agora Financial Daily Reckoning:

"The Congressional Budget Office's latest numbers reveal that America's national indebtedness will increase by $9.7 trillion over the next 10 years. Further, the CBO projects the national debt will be 90% of GDP by the end of this decade. This projection seems very optimistic, as America's national debt has already reached 86% of GDP."


The CBO has a specious record when projecting anything. Remember, this $9.7T is only the indebtedness and it's only the increase for 10 years.

So let me go through some simple arithmetic according to numbers furnished by Google:

$1,000,000 ($1M) in $100 bills weighs 22 pounds and is 1.24 Meters in height when stacked. (Google numbers)

$1,000,000,000 ($1B) in $100 bills weighs 22,000 ponds and is 1240 Meters in height when stacked.

$1,000,000,000,000 ($1T) - which just happens to be 1 million $1M - weighs 22,000,000 pounds and is 1,240,000 Meters in height when stacked.

     22,000,000 pounds = 11,000 tons which is the displacement of an Independence Class WWII aircraft carrier.  1,240,000 Meters = 770 miles. Lay the stack down on its side and it reaches from the Oregon/California border to the California/Mexico border.

Guess what?  That's only $1T!

Here's what you get for $9.7T:

106,700 tons and 7469 miles.  The weight of the 13 story, 1379 stateroom, 2758 passenger, 1100 crew, 893 foot long Carnival Cruise Lines ship Carnival Victory is 101,509 tons.  To reach 106,700 tons you would have to load an additional 5191 Volkswagen Bugs.  Lay the stack down and it goes from Denver to Hong Kong.

Do you think these people representing us have a clue?  I certainly don't.  One of these days I'll write about what I learned of the mental state of staffers for Congressional members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees from 25 years ago.

A4 Driver