Comments on: Getting Serious about Economic Stimulus

By: Cliff Grammich

Cliff Grammich — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:55:35 +0000

My goodness, have we really passed the point where Dirksen’s jibe–”A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”–has lost all meaning? Yeah, I guess we did do that years (decades?) ago.

Not related to the points above, but I adored this passage: ‘”The American people have spoken,” said Obama. “They demand change, and I promise that I and every one of my former Clinton administration appointees will work hard to deliver that change.”‘

By: Peter Klein

Peter Klein — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:27:21 +0000

I think it’s a bit like digital storage — the units don’t matter, just the numbers. Remember when we measured memory and disk space in kilobytes? Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terrabytes: they all mean the same thing, depending on the year. 1 isn’t very much, 10 is plenty, and 100 is a lot.

By: Richard O. Hammer

Richard O. Hammer — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:24:54 +0000

Thank you for helping to clear up the meanings of these big numbers. Because, seriously, I would like an education which enables me to think logically on the scale of numbers common in the press.

As a householder I can quickly assess the opportunity costs of a $5000 furnace. I have a feel for that. But to be an educated macro-economist I need a similar feel for a billion dollars (or is it a trillion?)

I read a big number. Is it more or less than the market valuation of General Electric? all real estate in Chicago? the annual budget of California? I’d like to be able to dance quickly with these numbers. I suppose that could be taught.

By: Peter Klein Gets Serious About Stimulus! « ThinkMarkets

Peter Klein Gets Serious About Stimulus! « ThinkMarkets — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:40:43 +0000

[...] Including allocating $986 giggitysquillion for Goldman Sachs. [...]