Mar
19th
Thu
19th
How Much Is A Trillion Dollar?
Yesterday the Fed announced that they are going to print an additional $1.15 trillion, divided up as follows:
- $750 billion to purchase agency mortgage-backed securities
- $100 billion to purchase agency debt
- $300 billion to purchase longer-term Treasury securities
To put that amount of paper dollars in perspective, $1.15 trillion is roughly equal to:
- the yearly GDP of Mexico or Australia
- the amount of US treasuries held by China
- the external debt of about 150 countries in the world
Furthermore, compared to other world figures, $1.15 trillion would be equal to:
- 8.3% of nominal US GDP
- 10.4% of total US public debt
- 32% of non-G8 (or 194 countries) total external debt
- ~50% of the Italian total public debt (which stands at 105.8% of GDP)
- 12 times the sovereign external debt Argentina defaulted on in 2002
- 29 times the debt cancellation owed by Third-World countries to the World Bank in 2005
Sources:
Rank Order by External Debt, The CIA World Factbook
Third World Debt, Wikipedia
Finanza pubblica, fabbisogno e debito (pdf), Central Bank of Italy
List of countries of GDP, Wikipedia
China’s Leader Says He Is ‘Worried’ Over U.S. Treasuries, New York Times
