frosty

Report from Europe: Non Farm Payrolls to Bring the Bears Out

Dear Mr. Mole

I really enjoy reading your articles . . . and the "and finally's". This one concerning the charity of our bankers is just ok for its sarcasm and/or irony or perhaps I'm reading too much into it. But it did bring to mind that Goldman bonus number ($20B by year-end est.) which I have been trying to put into perspective. So I divided by $50,000, roughly the average American salary, and I get 400,000 average American jobs. I've done this over and over thinking my Intel chip is going whacky, but it alway comes up the same. Am I in error - do you have a chip that gives a different answer? Then I went to the state of Connecticut's web site (I live here) and discovered that our state's budget is $17.5B! Wow! I thought of searching out other states' budgets and nations' budgets to help put that number in perspective - it would be interesting.

Anyone who reads or listens to any of the press is now jaded by talk of billions and even trillions of dollars and no longer has a perspective of what a billion or $20B represents. We're sort of innoculated against understanding it or appropriately reacting to it.

So I was hoping that you, or one of your readers, with more research tools and expertise than I, might do an expose in terms that most people can put in perspective, of what these bonus amounts are worth (in terms other than cars and yachts). It would make for a very interesting article.