The Size of Money (Part 1)

Now that we got this here depression on, a lot of us are spending more time thinking about money than spending time spending it like we used to. And thinking about money can be scary. Here, in Part 1 of our series about the size of money, let us examine (courtesy of www.pagetutor.com) just how many bills it takes to make a trillion dollars.

All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...

A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.





A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.





Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.





While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...





And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...





Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros. You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...



Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...




(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.