What does one trillion dollars look like?

All this talk about tarp, stimulus packages, and bailouts...

A billion dollars...
A hundred billion dollars...
Eight hundred billion dollars...
One TRILLION dollars...

These various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats.

What does that look like?

To get a sense of what a trillion dollars looks like, we'll start with a $100 bill.
Currently the largest U.S. Denomination in general circulation.
Most everyone has seen them; slightly fewer have owned them.
Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

$100 bill $100


$10,000 $10,000

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million (100 packets of $10,000).

$1,000,000 $1,000,000

It fits neatly on a standard pallet.

$100,000,000 $100,000,000

And $1 billion using $100 bills...
Now we're really getting somewhere.

$1,000,000,000 $1,000,000,000

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars.

That's the number we've been hearing about so much.

What is a trillion dollars?

Well, it's a million million.
It's a thousand billion.
It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
It's 10,000 pallets, each stacked with $100 million in $100 bills.

1 trillion dollars

$1,000,000,000,000 $1,000,000,000,000

Notice those pallets are double stacked and how small the man looks.

that's what they're talking about.