Tuesday, 3 May 2011

What would you do with US$ 3 TRILLION?

The Economist Magazine of 16th April had a fascinating and interesting article on the fact that China's central bank had 2.85 trillion US$ in foreign-exchange reserves.

They suggested a number of 'fantasy shopping' items, many that would leave a sizeable chunk of change!

All the farmland and farm buildings in the USA - $1.87 trn
The sovereign debt of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain - $1.51 trn
All the shares of Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Google - $916 bn
All the property in Manhattan, New York & Washington, DC - $287 + $232 bn
The 50 most valuable sports teams/franchises in the world - $50 bn

Theoretically they could buy the US military, valued at $1.9 trn in 2010 (of the $1.9trn, $413.7 bn is guns, tanks and other gear - the remainder is land , buildings etc)

The Economist often come up with this kind of sideways look / commentary on financial issues - do try a copy every now and then and subscribe if of interest

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