Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is finally admitting there is some inflation in the U.S. But he says it’s moderate and temporary, so still no worries. Some economists aren’t quite so sanguine. They’ve bought their own 100-trillion-dollar Zimbabwe notes to remind themselves that we shouldn’t get carried away trying to pump up the economy by printing more money. That’s what Zimbabwe tried to do and the 100-trillion-dollar notes are selling (as I write this) for about $5 (U.S.) on e-Bay.
As the saying goes, inflation is being broke with a pocketful of money.
Are you tempted to be a multi-trillionaire?
some days I would like to have a bit more money…other days I’m more than satisfied with my lot 🙂
my usual response: “it depends” 🙂 😉 🙂
Only is AU$
Part of the reason I work now and again is to “extend” the life of our savings.
While I do like what I’m doing, it would take a lot less than a
trillionor million in real money for me to do something I like a whole lot more… like not work.I am already one!
I don’t even know how many zeros there are in a trillion.
However, I do remember (in the mist of fog of my history lessons) that there was a time in the 1920s/30s when people carted their salary home in wheelbarrows. Only to starve.
Otherwise you might like to move to Italy where everything was inflated, and a lot of spaghetti served by MAMMA MIA. They like it big. Now they have Euros (and, possibly – not sure – MacDonald’s).
U
The nice thing about living in Japan was that we withdrew 100,000 every time we went to the ATM. There is a certain psychological impact to the big numbers. But then a single carrot was 100.
Cathy,
We’re to the point that more money wouldn’t make us happier. And I’ve read that people who win the lottery aren’t any happier a year later than before they received the money. I am starting to incorporate your “it depends” into my life. 🙂
Evan,
Would you really like to have that much in AU$?
Mike,
We took early retirement and Andy doing contract work extended our savings too. He passed on the last offer because the work wasn’t that interesting. That is a nice feeling.
Rummuser,
How about a bit more information? Did you go on eBay?
Ursula,
Ye, the hyperinflation in Germany was one reason Hitler was able to gain power. It’s a disastrous situation.
Looney,
How long were you in Japan? I imagine the shock of paying 100 for a carrot wears off after a bit.
Why not? I could just employ a billionaire to manage it all for me while I got on with living a fairly modest lifestyle.
Evan,
The trick would be to keep your anonymity. That’s the problem with winning hundreds of millions here in the states. People find out about it and pester the winner to share it. Some people end up being very sorry they won. It’s a big risk.
Yes, but hey I could employ an army of security guards!
Seriously; with that sort of money I’d set up a foundation and do useful things with it. Education that respected people, financing non-polluting power generation, promoting fair trade, cheap health initiatives – there is no shortage of worthwhile places to spend it!
Evan,
That’s what I would do too, set up a foundation and have the money essentially out of my control. Then if someone pestered me I would ask them for a donation. 🙂
We do buy a lottery ticket when the payoff is high enough. But we’re still not sorry when we don’t win. It’s in the hands of the gods and not our problem.
Jean, my family lived in Japan for two years. The shock of the carrots never quite wore off because that was nearly $1US each!
Looney,
Wow! That would be a shock. We were lucky. When we lived in France and traveled around the world the dollar was still worth something and we had a very favorable exchange rate. We wouldn’t have been able to do nearly as much if that hadn’t been true.
Looney,
I have been taking a early Japanese Lit paper and of course, we get into conversations about todays’ situations…this week “tobacco” was the subject. apparently smoking is quite common there, no one cares about medical aspects and in fact one of the brands produced there will never go overseas because the gov’t refuses to put the warning on the packaging…a pack of 20 costs about NZ$5 – which is peanuts in relationship to many other things in Japan…