$1 Trillion

When did you become aware of the term $1 Trillion? Five years ago? Ten years ago?

The word trillion comes from the French tri- (three) and -illion (from million). Jehan Adam first coin the word in 1475 as trimillion and this was later adjusted in 1484 by Nicolas Choquet to tryllion.

But how much is a trillion. Let me put it in context. If you take $1,000 bills and build a single stack you get the following results:

A $1 Million stack of $1,000 bills would measure 4 inches high.

A $1 Billion stack would measure 358 feet tall.

A $1 Trillion stack would stand 67.9 Miles high.

Now think about the national debt being $11 Trillion and climbing.

National Debt

We reached a major milestone over the last week: the National Debt now stands at $11 Trillion. With another $1 Trillion about to be added I thought it might be interesting to see who owns the US national debt. You might be surprised. In reverse order:

15. Luxemburg: $87 Billion (B)
14. Depository Institutions - US Banks, Savings Banks, Credit Unions: $107B
13. Russia: $120B
12. UK: $124B
11. Insurance Companies: $126B
10. Brazil: $133B
9. Caribbean Banking Centers: $177B
8. Oil Exporters - Venezuela, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lybia, Ecuador: $186B
7. Other Private Investors: $413B
6. Pension Funds: $456B
5. State & Local Government: $550B
4. Japan: $639B
3. China: $740B
2. Mutual Funds: $769B

Drum roll please. And the winner is:

1. The Federal Reserve: $4.8 Trillion (although another $1T is about to be added to this number).

So much for the theory that the Chinese and Japanese own the country. Although at a combined $1.38 Trillion they own 12.5% of the national debt.

I'm Back

Been insanely busy at work over the last few weeks and fell behind on the blog. Will catch up this week. The focus will be on the economy.