Trillions

joelisjoel | life | Friday, August 8th, 2008

Sometimes it’s hard to think about the economy because it’s just so damn big.  A billion here, a billion there, who cares?  Real sums of money are measured in trillions.

Think about it - say there are 300 million people in the US.  A trillion dollars is about $10 per person per day.  So lunch in Palo Alto every day for a year for every one in the US.  Got it?  Okay.  Here are some interesting amounts of money:

Measures of production (annual)

  • US GDP - $14trillion ($140/person per day)
  • US Industrial output - $3 trillion ($30/day)
  • US Imports - $2.3 trillion ($23/day)
  • US Exports - $1.6 trillion ($16/day)
  • Global Oil production - 31bil barrels - $3.1trillion - ($31/day)
  • US Oil consumption - $0.9trillion ($9/day)
  • US Oil production - $0.3trillion ($3/day)
  • US Govt Spending - $2.7 trillion ($27/day)
  • US Military Spending - $0.6 trillion ($6/day)

Stores of Value

  • US Stock Market Cap - $17 trillion ($56k/person and falling)
  • US Govt Debt - $6trillion ($20k/person and rising)
  • US Mortgage Debt - $10 trillion ($33k/person)
  • US Oil Reserves - 20bil barrels - $2.4trillion ($8k/person)
  • Candian Oil Reserves - 170bil barrels - $20 trillion ($66k/person)
  • Iranian Oil Reserves - 105bil barrels - $12 trillion ($40k/person)

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