I gather George Bush took over the television schedule yesterday in America to explain about the need for $700 billion of extra economic support for the US economy. Add that to the previous $300bn or so and we have the first Trillion of repair funds. I was looking around for some Trillion sized objects to get a sense of proportion.
Where to look: Fortune 500 maybe: Walmart turnover : $378bn, Exxon : $372bn, Chevron $210bn, General Motors $182bn. Close enough. Thats about a trillion. The entire revenue of the four biggest US corporations. The two biggest Banks (Citi and BoA) are around $280bn combined.
Then I noticed the Iraq war as a US Congressional budget line item.
The stats are probably highly political, and this source is Congressional Research Service cost data graphed by zFacts, so suitable caution etc, but the figures suggest somewhere north of $550bn since the start. Thats just over half of the trillion thats being allocated to rescue the US economy in the last 6 weeks or so.
My example above shows circa 3 seconds spending towards consuming a trillion in a year. Thats a lorra wonga in any language.
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