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
11/85Amount Latin American countries earned on their exports in 1984: $125,000,000,000
Amount they paid in principal and interest on their debts: $49,000,000,000
3/89Estimated value of U.S. stock taken off the market in 1988 due to mergers and acquisitions: $131,000,000,000
Estimated value of all new stock issued in 1988: $22,000,000,000
3/84Dollars spent by Americans on hospital care in 1982: $135,500,000,000
9/86Amount spent by the United States in 1985 on military operations in the Third World: $137,600,000,000
Amount spent guarding the country’s borders: $9,200,000,000
12/89Total value of the loans disbursed to developing countries in 1988: $92,000,000,000
Total debt service paid by developing countries in 1988: $142,000,000,000
10/00Damages that 5 tobacco companies were ordered to pay plaintiffs last July in a Florida class-action suit: $144,800,000,000
Months before this that Florida reduced its appeal bond fee from 100 percent of damages to a maximum of $100 million: 2
12/01Total new tax cuts for U.S. businesses approved by the House of Representatives in October: $146,000,000,000
1/09Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000
2/06Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000
4/07Estimated amount that U.S. adults who grew up poor cost the economy each year through increased crime: $170,000,000,000
Estimated amount they cost the economy through higher health care costs: $160,000,000,000
4/07Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were handed out without competitive bidding: $91,000,000,000
Total last year: $170,900,000,000
1/90Total outstanding balance on U.S. credit cards at the end of 1980: $54,894,000,000
At the end of 1988: $174,792,000,000
12/84Combined net worth of the 400 richest Americans: $125,000,000,000
Combined value of all the currency and coin in circulation in the U.S.: $175,000,000,000
9/99Amount for which Cuba has announced it will sue the U.S. over casualties caused by the trade embargo: $181,100,000,000
5/87Amount that Brazil and Mexico owe foreign creditors: $204,159,200,000
Amount the United States owes: $209,800,000,000
3/84Total hours of television watched in American households in 1983: 213,000,000,000
4/84Government estimate of the dollar value of the untaxed underground economy: $222,000,000,000
2/07Amount spent in 2006 to take U.S. public companies private: $248,460,000,000
Factor by which this exceeds the amount in the previous five years combined: 2
10/05Projected cost of disability payments to Iraq War veterans by 2050, based on rates for Gulf War veterans: $285,000,000,000
4/84Total memory capacity produced by the U.S. computer industry in 1983 (in “K”): 311,800,000,000
3/08Estimated total value of mortgages on which U.S. borrowers will default this year: $316,000,000,000
11/84Dollars spent on health care in the United States in 1983: $354,600,000,000
10/07Estimated amount needed over the next twenty years to maintain U.S. sewer systems: $390,000,000,000
7/84Amount that a nuclear freeze would save the U.S. between now and the year 2000: $400,000,000,000
5/96Annual U.S. trade with countries whose governments the State Department cited this year for torture: $400,000,000,000
9/05Total annual spending controlled by functionally illiterate U.S. consumers: $414,000,000,000
4/96Average number of bacteria living in a pound of U.S. mud: 455,000,000,000
2/03Minimum amount S&P 500 corporations owe in retirement benefits for which they have set aside no funds: $458,000,000,000
2/08Projected total cost of medical care for U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: $500,000,000,000
Ratio of this to the total military spending on both wars so far: 1:1
10/89Total number of frequent-flier miles U.S. airlines owe their passengers: 600,000,000,000
4/85Number of beer cans manufactured since they were introduced in 1935: 610,000,000,000
6/03Amount by which total U.S. personal debt in 2002 exceeded total disposable income: $628,000,000,000
5/07Amount that Alan Greenspan reportedly received for the February 26 speech in which he warned of a recession: $150,000
Total value that U.S. stock markets lost the next day, partly as a result of his warning: $632,000,000,000
2/07Total oil revenues that have flowed into Nigeria since 1974: $728,500,000,000
8/84Estimated world military expenditures for 1984: $970,000,000,000
6/04Amount by which total Social Security contributions since 1983 exceed total benefit payments since then: $999,059,000,000
4/02Amount that U.S. companies are projected to write off this year to account for devalued acquisitions: $1,000,000,000,000
8/03Amount the Defense Department has lost track of, according to a 2000 report by its inspector general: $1,100,000,000,000
This amount to the rest of the world’s military budgets combined: 2:1
8/95Estimated number of bug zappers required to kill all the insects in the world: 1,104,120,000,000
6/04Decimal places to which Japanese scientists have estimated pi: 1,241,100,000,000
1/85Number of pieces of paper processed by American businesses in 1981: 850,000,000,000
12/87Dollar value of all international trade in 1986: $2,000,000,000,000
11/08Estimated value of U.S. economic growth lost due to the global credit crisis: $2,000,000,000,000
7/84Grains of sand on the surface of New York’s Jones Beach: 2,230,000,000,000
11/03Total U.S. military spending the Bush Administration projects it will have spent by the end of 2008: $3,200,000,000,000
Total U.S. military spending between 1941 and 1948: $3,100,000,000,000
1/88Total amount of spending Congress approved from 1982 to 1987: $5,358,000,000,000
Total amount of spending Ronald Reagan requested from 1982 to 1987: $5,252,000,000,000
6/98Total value of all Japanese capital held in no-interest savings accounts or cash: $5,544,889,025,400
10/08Estimated total cost, over ten years, of the official tax policies laid out by McCain’s campaign: $4,200,000,000,000
Estimated total cost of the tax policies proposed by McCain in his public speeches: $7,000,000,000,000
5/89Estimated market value of all real estate in Tokyo: $8,000,000,000,000
Estimated market value of all real estate and public corporations in the United States: $8,000,000,000,000
1/09Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000
6/07Grant that NASA has given an Arizona astronomer to study how to block solar rays with a cloud of small spacecraft: $70,000
Number of two-foot-wide spacecraft he says would be required: 16,000,000,000,000
12/87Dollar value of all international capital transfers in 1986: $30,000,000,000,000
11/00Estimated number of hours of labor performed by African-American slaves between 1619 and 1865: 222,505,049
Estimated value of that labor, compounded at 6 percent interest through 1993: $97,100,000,000,000
8/91Estimated number of grains of sand in one acre of beach: 2,000,000,000,000,000
3/08Number of Hurricane Katrina–relief claims filed by individuals to the U.S. government that have exceeded $1 billion: 232
Dollar value of the largest claim: $3,000,000,000,000,000
12/95Size of an iceberg that separated from Antarctica last January, in ice cubes: 70,000,000,000,000,000
11/94Percentage change during 1993 in the inflation rate in Serbia: +363,000,000,000,000,000