What is a TRILLION?

There has been much talk about huge numbers lately. Some of these numbers have not been used before except when discussing the distance between stars or galaxies in outer space.

Federal Debt of the USA stands at over $16 Trillion at this writing.  Some say there is an Unfunded Liability beyond this that may reach $150 Trillion. There is a Derivatives Crisis looming that amounts to as much as 1.5 Quadrillion Dollars.

We hear Millions, Billions and Trillions casually tossed about when discussing National Budgets, Deficits and Debt.   For a way to understand the difference in these terms, try thinking of it this way:

One Million seconds from now will be about a Week and a Half. (11.57 Days or 1.65 Weeks)

One Trillion seconds from now will be about Thirty−Two Thousand Years. (31,688.09 Years)

Light travels at a speed of 186,282 miles per second.  It takes light Over 2 Months (61.23 Days) to travel One Trillion Miles!

A friend and I went to buy a used appliance, and I had the $100, cash, in twenty−dollar bills.  Before we went into the store, I had him try to put them in my hand at a rate of one per second. It took him four tries, but he did it.  I told the guy that if he could do that for about a minute, he could pay his rent and utilities for the month. Then I told him that he would need to do that day and night, year after year, century after century, for about 27 thousand years (26,935 Years) to pay−off the National Debt of the USA as it stood at the time.

Did you get that − one $20 Bill, every second, for the next 27,000 years ?  The National Debt is expected to be about $20 Trillion by the end of the term of the current occupant of the office of President.  That is about 32,000 years!

As an update to these numbers the US national debt is about $23,000,000,000,000 ($23 Trillion) and growing.  Our example would have you laying out a $20 Bill every second for almost 36,500 years to pay that off, if it didn't grow any more.

Concerning "the Derivatives Timebomb," you may wish to read this article:

Derivatives
The Mystery Man Who'll Break the Global Bank at Monte Carlo

It is an eye-opening article!

Using my example of laying out money every second, you would need to lay out a $100 bill every second for 4,753,213 years to cover all the potential exposure in the Derivatives Crisis!  If you laid out a $100 bill every second for 3 to 8 minutes, you could buy a nice new car...