Answering My Children: What Comes After a Trillion?

The innocence and knowledge of a child is sometimes much more clearer than our insights. My young daughter asked me what comes after a Trillion dollars. My son answered a Zillion. I had to interject and add that does not exist ( yet). Maybe U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will invent a new number the way he is going.

I do not find it hard to be in the minority. The stock market loved the announcement. So many ( maybe so) think the bottom is in and they are rushing in buy all the bargains. It still resonates with me all the money that was lost year trying to buy cheap. The fact was cheap got cheaper. Only time will tell if this is a Bear Market Rally or a true bottom.

There are two levels to this… obviously a trading one and the other an economic debate. Yesterday noble laureate Paul Krugman came out and harshly criticized Tim Geithner’s plan. What is concerning was Krugman’s exact words, “”In fact it fills me with a sense of despair.” This is not just me or a man in the street. This is a Nobel Laureate, an economist from Princeton. He phrased it very simply:

“The Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt,”. What a great investment for an investor. Heads I win, Tails I lose and I don’t have to pay anything.

Seems very clearly there could be an inefficiency due to the fact that the bad loans may be undervalued because there is too much fear in the current climate. We see this all the times in trading. And who will bear the brunt of the inefficiency? One guess: Joe the plumber and fellow taxpayers.

What happens if the plan fails, ( which I think it will)? Besides the fact that more money goes down the proverbial AIG toilet drain, How would Obama persuade Congress to come up with more funds?

Possible answer to my children: What comes after a Trillion? A zillion… inflation…hyperinflation… Defaults???

Comments

[drbob66:]

Quadrillion.

Mar 24 08:39 AM

[kelm:]

A new, re-valued currency probably called "the hope dollar" or something. The plan was probably the best Geithner could get within the constraints he is operating under (money from Congress, willingness of investors etc). However, he is one of his own constraints and I have to wonder if his closeness to Wall Street and apparent unwillingness to play hard ball with the banks acted as a de facto constraint on the plan. I do not think it will work long term but we'll see. It will encourage dollar flight though.

Mar 24 09:41 AM

[silver-bug:]

This is a rhetorical question. If you are to follow the govt's example, you should be getting into as much debt as you can possibly afford and pay off these debts with worthless paper down the raod... brilliant!

Obama's following Bush's mantra: spend, spend, spend! It's the patriotic thing to do!

Mar 24 03:40 PM

[Fred Voetsch:]

"...what comes after a Trillion dollars?"

A tax increase.

Mar 24 05:51 PM

[Fred Voetsch:]

On Mar 24 05:51 PM Fred Voetsch wrote:

> "...what comes after a Trillion dollars?"


BTW, it's a Quadrillion, or so I've been told. Supposedly that's how much in notional derivitaves are (were) floating around out there in total.

I came across this very interesting page at
www.gold-eagle.com/edi...
...it is dated, September 15, 2000

Mar 24 05:59 PM

[Andy Abraham:]

Sadly you are right... as the say...keep things as simple as possible but not simpler...


On Mar 24 03:40 PM silver-bug wrote:

> This is a rhetorical question. If you are to follow the govt's example,
> you should be getting into as much debt as you can possibly afford
> and pay off these debts with worthless paper down the raod... brilliant!
>
>
> Obama's following Bush's mantra: spend, spend, spend! It's the patriotic
> thing to do!

Mar 25 12:00 AM

[A9:]

Numbers After A Trillion In Orders of Magnitude: Quadrillion, Quintillion, Sextillion, Septillion, Nonillion, Decillion, Undecillion, Duodecillion, Tredecillion, Qattuordecillion, Quindecillion, Sexdecillion, Septendecillion, Octodecillion, Novemdecillion, Vigintillion, Unvigintillion,..Trigi... (NearGoogol), Quadragintillion,..Qui... Octogintillion,..Nonagintillion,..Centillion,....Ducentillion,....Trecentillion,....Quadringentillion,....Quingentillion,....Sescentillion,....Septingentillion,....Octingentillion,....Nongentillion,....Millillion,.......Platillion,..........Myrillion,..................Micrillion,................Nanillion,................Picillion,..............Attillion,.................Zeptillion,.............Yoctillion,...........Xonillion,.............Vecillion,...............Trecillion,...........Tetrecillion,.............Pentecillion,...................Hexecillion,..................Heptecillion,..............Heptecillion,...................Octecillion,...................Ennecillion,.................Icosillion,.....................Triacontillion,.........................Googolplex....There are not too many cardinal numbers that have been named beyond this due to the extreme amounts that are quantified and which is deemed unnecessary. At this point we're now dealing with an incomprehensibly large number which is 10^10^100. This list of numbers however do go on for a while towards infinity.

Mar 31 08:50 PM

[A9:]

Numbers that didn't fully appear as intended for some reason were Trigintillion and Quinquagintillion.

Mar 31 08:53 PM

[A9:]

I also forgot to add in Octillion between Septillion and Nonillion, as well adding in Sexagintillion and Septuagintillion between Quinquagintillion and Octogintillion.

Apr 03 12:44 AM