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| How big is $770,000,000,000? |
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by Eamonn Fingleton
9/28/2005
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$$$ It works out to about $2,600 for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
$$$ It is four times the total GDP of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporting nation.
$$$ It is equal to the estimated entire manufacturing output of China, the world's most populous nation.
$$$ It is more than 110 times America's entire overseas development aid budget.
$$$ It is 3,040 times the cost of all vaccines used annually in the Third World.
$$$ If delivered in dollar bills, it would weigh 690,000 tons -- or about fifteen times the weight of the Titanic. The money would require a fleet of 6,000 Boeing 747 freighters to transport.
$$$ Placed end to end in dollar bills, it would stretch about 75 million miles -- or about two-thirds of the way to the sun. If the dollar bills were stacked one on top of the other they would rise 53,000 miles into space.
STATISTICAL NOTE: The forecast is calculated on a 'current account' basis -- the most comprehensive and meaningful measure of trade and
the one used by economists and other experts. This is distinct from the 'goods-and-services' basis used by the U.S. government in announcing the widely reported monthly trade figures. Generally the current account basis produces figures significantly larger than the goods-and-services basis.
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Contact Eamonn Fingleton |
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