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Japans soaring national debt, already more than twice the
size of its economy, has reached a new milestone, surpassing
1 quadrillion yen.
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Japan's debt looks like this:
1,000,000,000,000,000 yen
READ MORE ON yen | John Schwartz | Japn Economy | Gross Domestic Product | debt
By John Schwartz
Japan's soaring national debt, already
more than twice the size of its economy,
has reached a new milestone, surpassing
1 quadrillion yen.
Let the word quadrillion roll around in your
brain for a moment or two, because it is not
something you hear every day. Quadrillion.
1,000,000,000,000,000. Really.
A paltry million is the numeral one followed
by six zeros. A billion? Nine zeros. A trillion
is getting up there: 12 zeros. But the
mighty quadrillion has 15 of them.
The mind boggles. (Although it doesn't
googol: That one is followed by 100 zeros.
And that's the actual spelling. You can
Google it.)
A quadrillion is a million billion, putting it into the kind of language used by middle
schoolers to describe really humongous sums, along with gazillion and bazillion.
Measuring any currency in quadrillions brings to mind the hyperinflation of Germany
between the wars, or Zimbabwe in the last decade. But a country with a real currency?
It is such a big and unusual word, describing such a big and unusual number, that its
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use is inconsistent: Bloomberg News used quadrillion in the headline of an early story
Friday about Japan's debt, but later in the day the stories and headlines referred to a
"thousand trillion," which is not nearly as much fun.
Questions emailed to the Bloomberg editors responsible for those stories were not
returned, suggesting perhaps a lexicographical quadrilliongate.
How much is a quadrillion? The entire human body is said to have just 100 trillion cells; it
takes 10 of us to make a quadrillion. Jeff Bezos has a personal fortune of some $25
billion, allowing him to plunk down $250 million for The Washington Post, which is
essentially how much money he might find by looking behind his sofa cushions. To get
to a quadrillion dollars, however, we would have to have 40,000 Bezoses, or as many
people as live in Prescott, Ariz. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and director of
the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, helpfully offered a
few other ways to think about a quadrillion.
"It would take you 31 million years to count to a quadrillion - one number per second,
never sleeping," he said in an email, adding that "a quadrillion yen, stacked in 1,000-yen
notes, would ascend 70,000 miles high."
He also wrote, although it is not clear how he would know such a thing, that "the total
number of all sounds and words ever uttered by all humans who have ever lived is about
100 quadrillion."
"This figure includes all congressional debates and filibusters," Tyson wrote.
Compared with Japan, the U.S. national debt is a mere $16 trillion or so. But if you
convert that number into yen, it comes to about 1.5 quadrillion. So it's good to have a
currency that conserves its zeros. Of course, that also means the total U.S. debt is even
larger than Japan's (although not, it should be noted, as a percentage of gross domestic
product).
Hmm. Let's not talk about that.
READ MORE ON yen | John Schwartz | Japn Economy | Gross Domestic Product | debt
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NEWEST OLDEST RECOMMENDED (3) MOST DISCUSSED AGREE LOGGED IN COMMENTSNEW!
After Europe's economic melt down , now japan, the second largest economy in Asia in
trouble. all the nations that depended more on exports do face these problems as the
export potential is diminishing,
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Howmany HONDA, ToYOTA, SONY etc., will world have to buy to bridge this debt ? When
will Japan ever clear this debt? Who is funding this debt ?
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Such a small Loan.. Just 1 Trillion Dollar.. Less than 1.5 Trillion Dollar of US..
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don't see the No of Zero's in the National Debt but see the Growth it is doing with those
high Debt. they really make others zero in terms of Quality & development. isn't.
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The YEN as a currency consumes more Zeros.. The Word Quadrillion is also very new to
learn.. Great article for learning numbers.. Ohh Sorry. The Debt is also very huge but less
than US in absolute terms..
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safe place know in u,k the best place for this yen
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US Debt is 60% more. But given Japanese propensity to save and historical low interest
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rates, that debt is still manageable. Many times expressing debt simply as % of GDP is too
simplistic. cost of financing and internal vs external are two main criteria. Germany has
higher debt as % of GDP than Spain, but German rating is AAA whereas Spain is just one
notch above junk.
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article talks more about quadrillion than reasons for japans huge debt
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1,000,000,000,000,000 Euros, that's HOW Europe's Debt looks like. US is NOT MUCH
behind.
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He also wrote, although it is not clear how he would know such a thing, that "the total
number of all sounds and words ever uttered by all humans who have ever lived is about
100 quadrillion." Dear Author, I still dont understand the objective of this article. I
understand quadrillion is a crazy no, but mind u that we are more interested in economics
or finance rather than these stupid facts.
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Japan's debt looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000 yen - The Economic ... http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/japans-...
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