DISQUS

Market Folly: What One Trillion Dollars Looks Like

  • Jim · 9 months ago
    To borrow an illustration from the book FairTax:The truth - if you repaid a $1 million debt at the rate of $1 per minute, it would take about 11 1/2 days; for a billion dollars it would take 32 years; for a trillion dollars, 32,000 years. Let your children and grandchildren know that's what's in store for them.
  • marketfolly · 9 months ago
    wow sobering statistics for sure. thanks for that.
  • Mike · 9 months ago
    Jim - recheck your math. You meant "...if you repaid a $1 million debt at the rate of $1 per SECOND, it would take about 11 1/2 days"... everything else would then be true. Good illustration, though.
  • PJ · 9 months ago
    Note, too, that the pallet is actually a pallet of packets of $100 bills. Not singles.
  • Giovanni-101890 · 9 months ago
    Business DBH. Compensator
  • Oh Joy · 8 months ago
    It's Actually Twice That?

    Follow the links to his methodology...I think he made a mistake.

    Look at the graphic: 50 wide * 50 deep * 2 layers is 5,000...not 10,000.

    His error was that he said 50 wide * 2 layers = 100, then that 50 wide @ 2 layers square must be 100 * 100 = 10,000.

    Four layers of (50 * 50 = 2500) equals 10,000 pallets.

    Think of it in smaller numbers:
    5 boxes wide times 5 boxes deep is 25 boxes, and two layers of that is 50 boxes. His error was like saying that since there are 10 boxes on each side, there must be 10 * 10 = 100 boxes.

    Any other thoughts?