Alarming! 82 industrial nations have national depts of 42 Billion US$

[Boncuk]

I guess Greece was just the top of an iceberg concerning national dept.

The entire gigantic sum of 42 Billion (42,000,000,000,000) US$ is due for payment.

The 100 richest persons in the world own 350 Milliards US$ (350,000,000,000), just enough to pay the annual interest of that huge sum of debts.

The financial situation is worst in the USA, just like after another World War - participating with 1/3 of the entire amount of national dept.

National loans have reached 90% of the annual gross national product , making it almost impossible to pay back the depts, not even interest.

I wonder if the world will return to goods exchange as it was practiced in ancient times.

Boncuk

 

[Hero999]

I've not looked it up but I can guess at who's in credit: Russia and China and wouldn't be surprised if they've loaned money to the US.

 

[BrownOut]

I wonder what it even means to be "industrial" these days. The US, for example, is included amongst the "industrial" nations, even as manufacutring has shrunk to a near insignificant portion of the national economy. It's a model that could not be sustained; offshore industrial production and expect wealth to continue to grow.

 

[Sceadwian]

According to Wikipedia, about 40% of the securities owned by foreign countries are Japan and China. Russia's only about 3%

 

[tcmtech]

Huh?

42,000,000,000,000 is trillions not billions.

350,000,000,000 is billions not millards.

If the world debt was only $42 billion Bill Bates and his buddies could pay that off with their Visa cash cards!

 

[Hero999]

Depends on whether he's talking about US billions and millions?

 

[tcmtech]

It was my understanding that the numerical names like one, thousand, million, billion, trillion and so on are intentional in terms of numerical denominators.

 

[DirtyLude]

Ya, I saw this just a couple months ago. Never heard of the terms being different internationally, but apparently a billion doesn't always mean a million million. ..and a milliard is a billion.

Long and short scales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
**broken link removed**

 

[Mikebits]

I thought a milliard was a duck...

**broken link removed**

 

[tcmtech]

Well in my defense I went to American public schooling.

Up until now I had never heard or the long and short scales systems.

I would appear I may have actually learned something here today!

 

[Boncuk]

Huh?

42,000,000,000,000 is trillions not billions.

350,000,000,000 is billions not millards.

If the world debt was only $42 billion Bill Bates and his buddies could pay that off with their Visa cash cards!

I know numbers are expressed differently in Anglo-Saxon countries. That's why I put down the numeric values as well.

"Trillions" doesn't exist in the German language.

 

[Mikebits]

I know numbers are expressed differently in Anglo-Saxon countries. That's why I put down the numeric values as well.

"Trillions" doesn't exist in the German language.

Pardon me for saying so, but is not a German an Anglo-Saxon? According to Wiki...

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD

Anglo-Saxons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[JimB]

It was my understanding that the numerical names like one, thousand, million, billion, trillion and so on are intentional in terms of numerical denominators.

Sadly not.
A US billion is 10^9, whereas a UK billion is 10^12 (I think!).

Maybe this is why the science, mathematics and engineering communities generally dont use these terms, instead they prefer to use kilo, mega, giga, tera etc or maybe just notation such as 300 * 10^6 .

Avoids ambiguity, and ambiguity is the mother of all ****-ups!

JimB

 

[Mikebits]

You mean like...Mega **** ups?

 

[Sceadwian]

Mega and teradollars just doesn't sound right though. Very educational thread, I didn't even know about the long scale until this post came up. Apparently there's all sorts of extra terms in the long scale. Millard, billard, byllion, tryllion, quadrillion, quyllion, sixlion, septyllion, ottyllion, and nonyllion, Mostly made by the French to fill in all those gaps left in the short scale, and I used to think Scientific notation was annoying =P now it seems like a walk in the park =>

 

[Boncuk]

Pardon me for saying so, but is not a German an Anglo-Saxon? According to Wiki...


Anglo-Saxons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have absolutely no problem with that.

No matter where you look - Germans, Germans, Germans!

 

[Boncuk]

Well in my defense I went to American public schooling.

Up until now I had never heard or the long and short scales systems.

I would appear I may have actually learned something here today!

Just to learn something more about numbers: Thai numbers end at millions (1,000,000 to 999,999,999). To express one billion they use "one thousand millions" (1,000,000,000,000)

 

[Boncuk]

Mega and teradollars just doesn't sound right though. Very educational thread, I didn't even know about the long scale until this post came up. Apparently there's all sorts of extra terms in the long scale. Millard, billard, byllion, tryllion, quadrillion, quyllion, sixlion, septyllion, ottyllion, and nonyllion, Mostly made by the French to fill in all those gaps left in the short scale, and I used to think Scientific notation was annoying =P now it seems like a walk in the park =>

Not to forget "Boullion"

 

[Hero999]

I prefer the short scale myself because it fits in with the ISO convention of having a new term for every power of ten.

 

[Sceadwian]

I can't understand why the long form is still used.