Chana Joffe-Walt
Doing math for the podcast on my tray-table
The Toxic Asset Relief Program was $700 billion. The AIG execs are grabbing $165 million in bonuses. The Fed plans to inject $1.2 trillion into the financial system.
Come on, be honest now, do you really know what these numbers mean? Nothing in our regular lives is measured in millions or billions, and certainly not in trillions. These numbers are so huge and they all rhyme. Today on the podcast we're going to follow the advice of a neuroscientist friend who says we need to measure impossibly large numbers against something we know.
The Internet has already figured that one out. Perhaps you'd like to think about a trillion in terms of tomatoes? Or grocery bags and palettes, or doormats, and pennies.
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