3/84Valentine’s Day cards purchased by Americans in 1982: 1,000,000,000
Cut roses (dozens): 13,000,000
1/97Amount spent each year on electricity to operate all the exit signs in buildings in the U.S.: $1,000,000,000
4/86Total amount NBC’s four Thursday night sitcoms are expected to earn in syndication: $1,000,000,000
8/87Estimated amount Americans will spend on bogus AIDS treatment in 1987: $1,000,000,000
10/87Average daily increase, since August 1982, in the market value of all publicly traded U.S. stocks: $1,000,000,000
10/89Estimated total value of the candy distributed last Halloween: $1,000,000,000
9/90Estimated amount stolen from federally insured financial institutions by bank robbers in 1989: $50,000,000
Estimated amount stolen from these institutions through bank fraud and embezzlement in 1989: $1,000,000,000
7/91Average number of hot dogs Americans eat in July: 1,000,000,000
4/94Estimated number of people worldwide who live on less than $1 per day: 1,000,000,000
12/95Gross revenue earned by U.S. telephone companies last year from phone calls made by prisoners: $1,000,000,000
6/00Estimated minimum value of the diamonds sold to De Beers by Angolan rebels since 1992: $1,000,000,000
8/00Amount by which last year’s WTO accord is projected to increase annual U.S. grain sales to China: $1,000,000,000
Percentage of last year’s U.S. grain sales to the European Union this represents: 96
6/03Amount of new U.S. military aid promised Israel in April to offset the “burdens” of the U.S. war on Iraq: $1,000,000,000
7/03Gallons of water that Boulder, Colorado, saved last year through a water-conservation program: 1,000,000,000
7/05Mass, in tons, of a comet that NASA plans to ram with a spacecraft on the Fourth of July: 1,000,000,000
Total cost of the mission, called “Deep Impact”: $330,000,000
11/06Number of people whom tobacco will kill this century, if current trends hold: 1,000,000,000
10/07Number of square feet of U.S. self-storage space built since 1998: 1,000,000,000
12/85Value of the items the Pentagon misplaced in 1984: $1,021,876,000
Value of the items it found: $1,013,697,000
3/87Number of movie tickets sold in 1986: 1,030,000,000
Number of videotapes rented in 1986: 1,040,000,000
10/07Total amount that U.S. Catholic dioceses have paid out since 2002 in child sex-abuse settlements: $1,073,000,000
12/90Amount Americans spend each year on birdseed: $1,100,000,000
5/04Total overruns at Boston’s “Big Dig” attributed to mistakes and mismanagement by the Bechtel Corporation: $1,100,000,000
9/05Total paid by U.S. catastrophe insurers since 1984 for claims due to “civil disorders”: $1,100,000,000
4/86Amount Bolivia earned on its exports in 1985: $1,114,000,000
Amount of that accounted for by cocaine: $450,000,000
11/94Federal emergency funds sent to Los Angeles-area residents after the January earthquake: $1,143,847,218.50
Amount returned to the government since then: $13,000,000
11/95Federal funds spent on maintaining nuclear testing operations since U.S. testing was halted in 1992: $1,185,600,000
6/86Number of books checked out from public libraries in 1985: 1,197,000,000
6/86Number of videocassettes rented in 1985: 1,200,000,000
11/99Total U.S. arms sales to Indonesia since it invaded East Timor in 1975: $1,200,000,000
10/06Minimum value of “small business” contracts given out by the U.S. last year that went to Fortune 500 firms: $1,200,000,000
12/98Funding that Congress allocated in this year’s budget for military programs not requested by the Pentagon: $1,229,000,000
6/84Total Defense Department telephone bill in fiscal 1984: $1,300,000,000
1/00Estimated number of people today who live on less than $30 per month: 1,300,000,000
Estimated number who are enslaved: 27,000,000
10/06Minimum amount of USDA farm subsidies since 2000 that have been paid out to people who do not farm: $1,300,000,000
11/08Amount that corporate donors to both conventions have spent lobbying Congress since 2005: $1,316,151,129
2/06Estimated amount spent in the United States each year to treat ACL injuries in dogs: $1,320,000,000
5/97Amount Americans spent last year on golf clubs: $1,370,000,000
1/89Estimated value of the goods purchased by Americans through TV shopping channels last year: $1,400,000,000
9/05Amount that pharmaceutical companies spent on R&D in 1997 per new drug they launched: $868,000,000
Amount last year: $1,430,000,000
2/89Amount of styrofoam waste generated by McDonald’s in the United States each year, in cubic feet: 1,500,000,000
2/97Amount that “side agreements” in NAFTA require the U.S. to spend on environmental cleanup: $1,500,000,000
12/04Minimum number of bullets the U.S. military purchased for use this year: 1,500,000,000
6/98Amount by which U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa last year exceeded those to former Soviet countries: $1,504,000,000
9/97Average amount the Pentagon estimates that NATO’s expansion will cost the U.S. over the next decade: $1,750,000,000
5/86Estimated amount spent in all U.S. political campaigns in 1984: $1,800,000,000
6/01Estimated amount that Salvadorans living in the U.S. sent home last year: $1,800,000,000
2/94Estimated annual spending on medical treatment for foot deformities caused by women’s ill-fitting shoes: $2,000,000,000
12/08Average value of defense contracts that each Pentagon auditor was responsible for vetting in 2007: $2,030,000,000
Average value each auditor vetted ten years ago: $642,000,000
3/97Amount oil companies owe the U.S. for undervaluing the oil pumped from public land since 1978: $2,050,000,000
11/05Amount Americans spent last year on “fantasy football”: $2,079,000,000
2/90Total value of U.S. exports to China in the five months following the Tiananmen Square massacre: $2,215,100,000
6/84Total man-hours spent mowing lawns in the United States each year: 2,254,000,000
11/84Estimated hours of work that are lost each year to alcoholism: 2,500,000,000
Estimated hours of work that are lost each year because of menstrual cramps: 576,000,000
8/88Total funds raised by American Jewish groups last year: $2,500,000,000
10/91Estimated amount Syria spent on arms imports last year: $250,000,000
Estimated amount Syria will spend on arms imports this year: $2,500,000,000
3/05Estimated total federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible last year: $2,500,000,000
11/87Liters of vodka drunk in the Soviet Union in 1984: 2,577,000,000
7/87Number of condoms the Reagan Administration has distributed worldwide since 1981: 2,600,000,000
6/04Minimum U.S. spending on missile defense each year since President Reagan’s 1983 “Star Wars” speech: $2,700,000,000
Number of the ten missile-defense components to be deployed this fall that have been field-tested as a system: 0
2/09Amount that GM’s car-loan business lost during the first nine months of 2008: $2,700,000,000
3/95Amount the federal government will spend this year on “Star Wars,” now called Ballistic Missile Defense: $2,800,000,000
1/88Total World Bank aid to African nations in 1986: $2,937,000,000
4/90Amount the Pentagon “saved” by moving the first payday of fiscal 1990 back to fiscal 1989: $3,000,000,000
1/98Estimated value of oil exports Iraq says it has lost per day since 1990 as a result of U.N. sanctions: $3,000,000,000
8/98Number of credit-card solicitations mailed to Americans last year: 3,000,000,000
2/01Estimated amount of Colombian drug money laundered each year via purchases of U.S. goods and services: $3,000,000,000
Amount this represents as a percentage of U.S. military aid pledged to Colombia last year: 578
7/05Estimated amount spent lobbying Congress last year: $3,000,000,000
2/07Total value of fraud cases to which whistle-blowers tipped off the Justice Department last year: $3,100,000,000
Amount the whistle-blowers were allowed to keep as reward: $190,000,000
7/87Estimated oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (in barrels): 3,200,000,000
4/89Amount Americans bet on greyhounds last year: $3,262,000,000
12/99Estimated revenue that the U.N. generates each year for New York City: $3,300,000,000
5/89Estimated increase in Latin America’s debt burden each time U.S. interest rates increase 1 percent: $3,400,000,000
7/85Foreign aid budget of the Soviet Union in 1978: $3,500,000,000
11/87Amount the Pentagon budgeted for Star Wars research in 1987: $3,500,000,000
Amount it budgeted for basic technology research for the Army, Navy, and Air Force: $3,233,000,000
3/89Amount Americans spend each year to eradicate household pests: $3,500,000,000
2/09Estimated total value in December 2007 of the family fortune of Thomas Friedman’s wife: $3,500,000,000
Percentage change in the value of that fortune since then: –97
1/88Total U.S. aid to Iowa farmers in 1986: $3,700,000,000
9/98Average annual U.S. spending on nuclear-arms programs during the Cold War: $3,700,000,000
6/00Estimated acres of topsoil eroded worldwide each year: 3,700,000,000
1/07Amount that U.S. college students spent last year on furnishings for dorm rooms and apartments: $3,800,000,000
6/05Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000
6/98Amount by which NASA is over budget on its international space station: $3,900,000,000
11/89Estimated value of Polish zlotys held in Polish bank accounts: $600,000,000
Estimated value of foreign currency held in Polish bank accounts: $3,918,000,000
4/91Total amount Kuwait invested in the United States last year: $4,000,000,000
9/88Amount the federal government paid outside consultants last year: $4,100,000,000
6/05Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000
4/99Amount the Pentagon will spend this year on its Ballistic Missile Defense or “star wars” program: $4,166,000,000
1/97Amount by which Medicare’s outlays exceeded contributions in 1995, the first year the program had a deficit: $36,000,000
Size of the Medicare deficit in 1996: $4,200,000,000
1/98Value of U.S. export contracts signed by China during Jiang Zemin’s U.S. visit last November: $4,260,000,000
12/89Amount by which cash deposits exceeded cash withdrawals at banks in Miami in 1988: $4,488,124,000
9/98Average annual amount the U.S. will spend on nuclear-arms programs through the year 2008: $4,500,000,000
4/99Amount the world has spent since 1977 on licensed Star Wars merchandise: $4,500,000,000
1/90Number of condoms the U.S. government has distributed to developing countries since 1981: 4,535,900,000
6/87Income earned in 1985 by residents of the 10021 ZIP code on New York’s Upper East Side: $4,910,300,000
7/90Number of trees George Bush has pledged to plant in the United States in the next five years: 5,000,000,000
Amount he has proposed to cut from existing Forest Service tree-planting programs next year: $32,000,000
5/99Amount of the $5 billion that Exxon was ordered to pay in punitive damages in 1994 that it has paid: 0
Estimated amount that Exxon has earned by investing this money in the meantime: $5,000,000,000
11/06Total expenditures this will artifically shift from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2007: $5,200,000,000
12/08Number of credit-card solicitations sent to Americans last year: 5,200,000,000
Percentage that were responded to: 0.5
8/08Total earnings for the U.S. airline industry in 1999, its most profitable year to date: $5,300,000,000
5/91Total amount of unclaimed private funds held by state agencies: $5,839,676,660
4/08Estimated amount that Americans spend on yoga each year: $6,000,000,000
2/88Cost to the U.S. Treasury of business deductions for meals and entertainment in 1988: $6,400,000,000
7/05Estimated amount that illegal immigrants pay into Social Security each year: $6,400,000,000
4/95Amount of this year’s defense budget that the General Accounting Office cites as not “adequately justified”: $6,800,000,000
11/84Dollars spent by Americans annually for packaged cookies: $2,400,000,000
Dollars spent by Americans annually for pornography: $7,000,000,000
11/07Estimated amount that teacher turnover costs U.S. school districts each year in recruiting and training: $7,000,000,000
7/86Amount of money Japan invests overseas each month: $7,000,000,000
9/88Projected decrease in government subsidies that will be paid this year to farmers: $7,000,000,000
Projected increase in government payments to farmers this year for drought relief: $7,000,000,000
8/01Federal funds budgeted this year for cleanup of the Defense Department’s hazardous waste: $7,460,000,000
9/98Estimated amount Americans spent on marijuana last year, according to the federal government: $7,000,000,000
Minimum amount federal, state, and local governments spent combatting marijuana, according to NORML: $7,500,000,000
7/86Value of Central America’s exports in 1980: $7,515,000,000
1/07Amount that the U.S. government spent on energy research and development in 1979, adjusted for inflation: $7,770,000,000
12/07Estimated amount that Americans lose every year by not redeeming gift cards: $8,000,000,000
1/86Amount General Dynamics was fined by the Pentagon in 1985 for improper activities: $676,283.80
Estimated value of Pentagon contracts awarded to General Dynamics in 1985: $8,000,000,000
2/97Number of candy hearts that the New England Confectionery Company made last year: 8,000,000,000
8/05Amount recouped by the U.S. government in institutional fraud cases since 1986: $8,000,000,000
Amount that whistleblowers received as a cut of this: $1,300,000,000
11/08Minimum amount the U.S. government has paid contractors in the Middle East since 2003: $8,200,000,000
6/92U.S. arms sales to the Middle East announced since President Bush proposed curbing such sales last year: $8,500,000,000
7/01Estimated cost of fuel consumed in 1999 by U.S. drivers caught in traffic delays: $8,600,000,000
6/05Revenue from Iraqi oil sales that the CPA could not account for, according to a 2005 audit: $8,800,000,000
Combined long-term corporate debt of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler: $9,000,000,000
10/05Kernels of candy corn manufactured for Halloween each year: 9,000,000,000
5/85Annual U.S. arms exports to the Third World: $9,500,000,000
Annual Soviet arms exports to the Third World: $4,500,000,000
10/01Maximum domestic damages at which a U.S. law caps U.S. liability for a nuclear accident in space: $9,500,000,000
Maximum total foreign damages at which the same law caps U.S. liability for such an accident: $100,000,000
6/89Pounds of industrial chemicals legally released into U.S. waters each year, according to the EPA: 9,700,000,000
1/98Estimated total eastern German spending on fighter jets that NATO expansion will necessitate: $10,000,000,000
5/98Value of international defense loans the U.S. has written off since 1990: $10,000,000,000
3/99Amount Fortune magazine estimates that Michael Jordan NBA career has contributed to the U.S. economy: $10,000,000,000
10/98Estimated U.S. taxes that multinational corporations legally avoided this year by using foreign accounts: $10,100,000,000
10/84Estimated value of Colombia’s annual drug exports: $8,000,000,000
Estimated amount of Colombia’s foreign debt: $10,472,000,000
3/97Value of the business U.S. firms claim to lose each year because they cannot legally bribe foreign officials: $11,000,000,000
7/85Amount spent for federal housing programs in 1984: $11,300,000,000
4/85Amount Americans spend to have their federal income tax forms prepared each year: $11,700,000,000
9/97Average amount the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost: $11,850,000,000
3/85Gross national home-gardening product in 1984: $12,000,000,000
2/88Losses the top five Japanese insurance companies took on U.S. government securities in 1987: $13,000,000,000
11/90Amount the German government has pledged to help pay for U.S. military operations in the Gulf: $1,000,000,000
Amount it has pledged to pay the Soviet Union to resettle Soviet troops stationed in East Germany: $13,000,000,000
1/85Total U.S. investments including bank loans and stockholdings, in South Africa in 1979: $5,263,100,000
8/00Estimated number of fireflies it would take to generate the visible brightness of the sun: 14,286,000,000
9/95Estimated Pentagon spending on U.S. military base closures since 1988: $14,900,000,000
Total Pentagon savings from base closures since then: $300,000,000
9/91Estimated annual cost of the redundant tests prescribed by U.S. doctors to avoid malpractice suits: $15,000,000,000
4/84Frames bowled in U.S. ten-pin alleys in 1983: 16,160,538,000
9/86Combined debt of Iowa farmers: $16,300,000,000
1/88Amount the 1988 reduction in income tax rates will cost the U.S. Treasury: $17,000,000,000
3/05Amount that the U.S. wedding industry would gain each year if gays wed at the same rate as straights: $17,000,000,000
Amount that U.S. divorce attorneys would gain if gays also divorced at the same rate: $1,900,000,000
12/96Amount of the trade surplus the U.S. had with Mexico the year NAFTA was passed: $1,700,000,000
Estimated amount of the trade deficit the U.S. has with Mexico today: $17,200,000,000
11/01Amount spent last year on company credit cards issued to federal government employees: $17,300,000,000
5/89Estimated number of charcoal briquettes sold last year: 17,500,000,000
6/89Estimated number of disposable diapers discarded each year by Americans: 18,000,000,000
12/96Amount the U.S. Defense Department admits it has “lost track of’: $18,000,000,000
8/94Amount the Pentagon will spend this year on major weapons programs initiated before 1989: $18,247,100,000
1/85Value of counterfeit products manufactured or sold in the U.S. last year: $19,000,000,000
7/00Number of full flight tests of the U.S. National Missile Defense system conducted in the program’s first seven years: 2
Number that were deemed a success: 1
Amount by which a congressional estimate of the system’s cost exceeds the Pentagon’s: $19,000,000,000
6/85Interest payments on the federal debt that were made to foreigners in 1984: $19,800,000,000
U.S. foreign aid in 1984: $15,583,000,000
4/86Value of British government assets Prime Minister Thatcher has sold since 1979: $20,000,000,000
8/08Additional cost to U.S. airlines this year due to increases in the price of fuel: $20,000,000,000
5/02Amount the World Bank has spent since 1992 on 212 projects to extract, transport, or burn fossil fuels: $20,800,000,000
Amount it has spent since then on its 30 projects involving renewable energy or energy efficiency: $900,000,000
7/88Amount the Pentagon spent last year on foreign-made parts and equipment: $21,000,000,000
3/97Value of the corporate tax breaks attached to last summer’s minimum-wage bill: $21,400,000,000
3/85Amount spent annually in the United States on private security forces: $21,700,000,000
On public police forces: $13,800,000,000
4/99Expenditures for which the Pentagon could not account last year: $22,000,000,000
9/00Cost to produce Safeguard, the only U.S. ground-based long-range missile shield ever deployed: $23,500,000,000
Number of days in the 1970s that the system was operational before it was abandoned as inadequate: 135
12/05Amount the U.S. spends annually on imported toys: $23,631,000,000
Amount spent by the next ten highest toy-importing nations combined: $21,729,000,000
Estimated farm income in 1986: $27,000,000,000
7/87Amount consumers paid for food packaging that year: $28,000,000,000
Portion of household trash in industrialized countries that consists of packaging: 1/2
6/91Value of U.S. residential real estate sold at auction last year: $28,000,000,000
7/01Amount by which the combined profits of the world’s top ten oil companies in 2000 exceeded those in 1999: $29,000,000,000
1/06Total service charges collected by U.S. banks in 2004: $32,000,000,000
6/93Amount by which the 1994 Pentagon budget exceeds the 1975 Pentagon budget, in constant dollars: $32,100,000,000
7/05Total value of congressional earmarks to appropriations bills last year: $32,700,000,000
7/07Amount the USDA’s Rural Development program has given in aid to distressed rural areas since 2001: $8,600,000,000
Amount the program has given to metropolitan areas, retirement communities, and resorts: $39,100,000,000
5/93Pentagon spending last year on unnecessary items due to inventory errors, according to the GAO: $40,000,000,000
4/96Change, since budget talks began last fall, in the number of known galaxies in the universe: +40,000,000,000
4/06Amount by which Americans’ total spending last year exceeded their earnings: $41,600,000,000
Last year in which spending outstripped earnings: 1933
8/89Estimated net amount the savings-and-loan bailout will cost the Northeastern states: $18,000,000,000
Estimated net amount the Sunbelt states will receive as a result of the bailout: $42,000,000,000
7/85Federal tax revenues lost as a result of homeowner deductions in 1984: $43,600,000,000
7/96Estimated cost of sealing the U.S.-Mexican border with a replica of the Great Wall of China: $45,000,000,000
2/99Number of S&Ls or shareholder groups seeking damages from the government over its handling of the 1980s bailout: 120
Estimated amount by which the awards sought will exceed the bailout’s original $165 billion cost: $50,000,000,000
4/02Estimated amount the United States spends each year safeguarding oil supplies in the Persian Gulf: $50,000,000,000
Estimated value of U.S. crude-oil imports from the region last year: $19,000,000,000
8/95Estimated change in annual federal revenues if corporations were taxed at 1953 rates: +$53,000,000,000
5/88Amount the Japanese spent last year on pinball: $55,000,000,000
Amount the Japanese spent last year on defense: $30,000,000,000
10/01Amount the Treasury Department will borrow this year to pay for the tax refund: $51,000,000,000
Amount it had projected spending to service U.S. debt this year, before the tax bill passed: $57,000,000,000
7/06Amount that insects add to the U.S. economy each year, according to one invertebrate advocacy group: $57,000,000,000
12/91Change, since last year, in investment by U.S. banks in commercial and industrial ventures: -$39,700,000,000
Change in investment by U.S. banks in government securities: +$58,400,000,000
4/85Total annual expenditures of U.S. corporations on employee-education programs: $60,000,000,000
Total annual expenditure of U.S. four-year public and private colleges and universities: $60,000,000,000
3/87Amount consumers paid in higher prices in 1986 because of import restrictions: $65,000,000,000
5/88Value of all corporate mergers and acquisitions announced in the first two months of 1987: $32,000,000,000
In the first two months of 1988: $65,000,000,000
3/02Amount the United States spent in 1949 on international aid and diplomacy: $66,400,000,000
Amount the United States plans to spend on this in 2002: $23,800,000,000
10/07Amount that poor roads cost Americans in repairs and other extra operating costs each year: $67,000,000,000
11/06Chances that a Californian lives in an area whose air pollution exceeds that state’s legal limit: 9 in 10
Estimated amount that smog costs California in extra health-care expenses each year: $71,000,000,000
1/09Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4
Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000
Amount that will be spent on Star Wars R&D before a deployment decision is made: $76,000,000,000
2/88Dollars bought by Japan, Germany, and Britain in 1987 to support the currency’s value: 78,000,000,000
6/86Amount Mexico has borrowed abroad since 1974: $97,000,000,000
Value of investments and deposits made abroad by Mexicans since 1974: $90,300,000,000
7/08Amount of the federal budget that John McCain says he could cut in a “New York minute”: $100,000,000,000
12/05Amount weather-related disasters cost worldwide in 2004: $107,000,000,000
2/05Number of free-trade agreements between developing nations and developed nations in 1990 and today, respectively: 23, 109
Projected change in world income over fifteen years if all developing nations were to enter such deals today: +$112,000,000,000
Projected change, in this scenario, in the total income of developing nations: -$21,500,000,000