1,000,000,000,000,000 is smaller than...

[Virgil Showlion]

1. the number of bytes on your home computer hard drive
   
2. the number of cells in the human body
   
3. the number of solar masses in the Milky Way galaxy
   
4. the Japanese national debt, valued in yen
   

Anyone who's been following the news probably won't have to think too hard.

[The Captain]

Slow day, eh Virgil?

BTW - I'm lost - that's a quadrillion right?  I don't think the US debt or prison population has gotten that high yet...

Ahh - I see - you were serious about the Japanese national debt.

At about 120yen per dollar that puts the per person debt load at about 69K.  In comparision it's at about 57K per person in the US.

NOW - I was surprised to see Canada had a higher public debt to GDP ratio than the US.

www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

Interesting, apparently there are many more countries who are more messed up fiscally then the USA.

[Virgil Showlion]

May 8, 2015 10:35:05 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Slow day, eh Virgil?

BTW - I'm lost - that's a quadrillion right?  I don't think the US debt or prison population has gotten that high yet...

Ahh - I see - you were serious about the Japanese national debt.

At about 120yen per dollar that puts the per person debt load at about 69K.  In comparision it's at about 57K per person in the US.

NOW - I was surprised to see Canada had a higher public debt to GDP ratio than the US.

www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

Interesting, apparently there are many more countries who are more messed up fiscally then the USA.

Canada's messed up. Not quite as badly as the US, though.

US debt-to-GDP is a hair under 106%. Japan's is vastly in excess of 228%. I'm not sure why the WDC is using nonstandard numbers. To compute the real number, you need to sum the two percentages (public and external), but that includes a great many things not included in the canonical debt-to-GDP.

It's a bit moot anyway, since the number doesn't include unfunded liabilities, agency debt, and debt at all levels of government other than federal, which collectively dwarf the reported percentages.

[wyouser]

I'm wondering if there is not an angle here to make a buck? Take those "moving " figure charts. mount em on an electronic board. Encase the unit in colorful plastic, make sure it has colorful lights, and sell the rights to someone like "Fisher-Price to market as a crib toy to lull little kids to sleep