Just a trillion here, and a trillion there

[mystery-ak]

February 5, 2024
Just a trillion here, and a trillion there
By Nick Lopez

A million, a billion, a trillion… no big deal.  One can picture Dr. Evil from Austin Powers swapping out letters as Number 2 lets him know that he’s not demanding enough money.  It’s only an “m”, a “b”, or a “tr” right?  They’re only letters.

Except… they’re not.  The words used to describe numbers that large are quite deceptive.

In researching the origin of the words, I came to the conclusion that the people who coined the terms weren’t trying to facilitate financial deception.  I just don’t think that they thought that debt could ever be described using those terms… they probably thought that trillions would only ever be used to describe the number of stars in the sky.

Million, billion, and trillion weren’t originally like .99 cents or 9/10ths of a cent at the gas pump.  The latter were coined with the explicit purpose of financial deception.

However, modern economists and governments are definitely using the terms to hide the true volume of the debt being carried.  Swapping out m’s for b’s and tr’s like it’s not a big deal.

But it is a big deal.

Do you have any idea how big a number “trillion” is?  Or how long it might take to count from one to one trillion?

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/02/just_a_trillion_here_and_a_trillion_there.html

[DefiantMassRINO]

The real reason the Fed is under pressure to cut interest rates:

1.) Election year
2.) Cost of Servicing Federal Debt
3.) To Stop Fed Balace Sheet losses from declining bond values.

[Free Vulcan]

And pretty soon interest paid is greater than receipts.

After that, do they think the world is going to continue to lend us money?

[Fishrrman]

Vulcan wonders:
"And pretty soon interest paid is greater than receipts.
After that, do they think the world is going to continue to lend us money?"

If the DCommunists remain in power, they'll eventually do what the Bolsheviks did:
Just renounce all debt.
Declare the slate wiped clean, and start over.

And... I wouldn't be surprised if there are STILL entities willing to extend credit (particularly China). But this time, the "collateral" will be ... different.

[roamer_1]

A thousand bucks. That, anyone can grok. It's ten crisp Benjamins fanned out in your hand. A thousand-thousand is getting pretty far beyond that native knowing for most folks.
A billion is incomprehensible.
A trillion is beyond knowing.

I watch people, even monetarily minded people, glaze over when speaking in real terms.

[andy58-in-nh]

A thousand bucks. That, anyone can grok. It's ten crisp Benjamins fanned out in your hand. A thousand-thousand is getting pretty far beyond that native knowing for most folks.
A billion is incomprehensible.
A trillion is beyond knowing.

I watch people, even monetarily minded people, glaze over when speaking in real terms.

@roamer_1

[berdie]

Every time the line is moved further out...a trillion, trillion, trillion. People get immune to hearing otherwise. They hear million or billion and think "Well that's not so bad". Not stopping to think how a million or billion can add up.

[LMAO]

@roamer_1

Now do 34 trillion