Trillion — It's the New Billion

Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi lecture on fiscal responsibility,
a concept extolled by the Democrats
Pelosi's hand gesture is the universal sign for "The fit has hit the shan!"

"Oh, the humility!"

The old witticism, 'a million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking real money' needs an upgrade. Was a time, not too long ago, when a billion dollars was serious money. Have you noticed how it's become chump change? There's a new denomination in Washington, D.C. — trillion. That's 1,000 billion, an increase by 3 orders of magnitude. When a trillion dollars becomes chump change, quadrillion will become the new trillion. Three orders of magnitude here, three orders of magnitude there, pretty soon you have Zimbabwe:

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe has persisted since 2000, shortly after that country's confiscation of white-owned farmland and its repudiation of debts to the International Monetary Fund. Recent figures (as of 14 November 2008) estimate Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate at 89.7 sextillion (10^21) percent.
 — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[A sextillion is a billion trillions; 89.7 sextillion is just a factor of 7 less than Avogadro's number!].

There was a time, a couple of generations ago, when a high school diploma meant something. Today, its only value is as a prerequisite for college. This is known as dilution — a lessening of real value by a decrease in relative worth. The more familiar economic term is inflation.

You do know that the federal government has ordered a million new printing presses, don't you?