The Three Trillion Dollar War

It's called the trillion dollar stimulus package.

The collective dollar value of BRIC consumers is estimated conservatively at just over 4 trillion, possibly 4.5 trillion.

It was hard work engineering a five trillion dollar deterioration in America s fiscal position.

Finally, investors are adding nearly a trillion dollars worth of net dollar securities to their positions every year, thus increasing the risk of continued dollar accumulation.

Especially as the dollar lost its sacred place as a store of value under the Bush administration, rebalancing these multi trillion dollar portfolios entails selling off dollar holdings, contributing to the dollar s weakening.

Or will they simply push for cosmetic reforms the minimum required to justify the mega trillion dollar bailouts?

Or will they simply push for cosmetic reforms  the minimum required to justify the mega trillion dollar bailouts?

It would be worth nearly 3 trillion in social good yielding an enormous 34 of benefits for every dollar spent.

In the two decades that followed, America s debt usually was around 3 trillion, rising or falling with the exchange rate of the dollar.

The 200 Trillion Question

Cutting early will cost 17.8 trillion, whereas cutting later will cost just 2 trillion.

Cutting early will cost 17.8 trillion, whereas cutting later will cost just 2 trillion.

Another Fed governor, Jeremy Stein, has pointed out that foreign banks have dollar liabilities of roughly 8 trillion, much of it short term wholesale funding.

One shudders to think what lessons the US financial sector will draw if, after the multi trillion dollar bailout, there are only superficial, toothless reforms.

In our new book The Three Trillion Dollar War , Harvard s Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the US to be 3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another 3 trillion far higher than the Bush administration s estimates before the war.

Today s 70 trillion world economy will be at 140 trillion before 2030, and 280 trillion before 2050 if we extrapolate from today s growth rate.

Bottom Dollar

Japan s primary deficit of 28 trillion in 2002 was reduced to only 6 trillion by 2007.

At the end of last year, Japan s net international wealth amounted to 296 trillion ( 3 trillion).

One quintillion is one million trillion.

The expected foreign aid 1.9 trillion.

It has plunged to 1.1 trillion.

Fully two thirds of that total around 2 trillion is invested in dollar based assets, largely US Treasuries and agency securities (i.e., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

But, in a world of trillion dollar capital flows and ever higher stakes in a sound global financial system, even modest improvements can make a big difference.

The Financial Stability Board has estimated that total global shadow banking assets in 2011 amounted to 67 trillion, with the US accounting for 23 trillion, the eurozone for 22 trillion, and the United Kingdom for 9 trillion.

Sally exchanged a twenty dollar bill for five dollar bills.

Sally exchanged a twenty dollar bill for five dollar bills.

Meanwhile, many of these gases need to be curbed because of their wider environmental impact on public health, agriculture, and the planet s multi trillion dollar ecosystems, including forests.

Moreover, as Bilmes and I argued in our book The Three Trillion Dollar War, the wars contributed to America s macroeconomic weaknesses, which exacerbated its deficits and debt burden.

Ukraine s Dollar Addiction

Whither the Dollar?

China s Dollar Problem

The Falling Dollar

After the Dollar

India s GDP of 3.3 trillion compares to China s 5 trillion, and is 20 that of the United States.

Estimates of the losses on US loans and securities range from under 1 trillion to almost 4 trillion.

Between November 2008 and June 2009, China s banks issued more than 8.6 trillion ( 1.3 trillion) in new loans.

According to the IMF, China s GDP will be 17.6 trillion in 2014, outstripping US output of 17.4 trillion.

To compare, Sweden's GDP is 579.7 billion dollars, Germany's is 3.73 trillion dollars, and UK's 2.68 trillion dollars.

It already has more than 2 trillion.

Do people think it is easy for a 12 trillion dollar economy to spend beyond its means year after year just to prop up other countries reputations for stability?

For example, U.S. farmland had a total value of 1.9 trillion in 2010, compared with 16.5 trillion for the US stock market and 16.6 trillion for the US housing market.

It is, she calculates, in the order of one trillion, although it could be as high as 2.7 trillion.

The Fed increased its securities holdings from less than 1 trillion in 2007 to more than 4 trillion today.