What you can buy for $8.5 trillion

I just read the news that the US government bailout of banks has risen to $8.5 trillion. This seems like a very large number. So large in fact that it seems unreal.
So let's take another look at that number. In yesterdays news, it was announced that the French government started construction of a 106km long canal in the north of France. This will connect Paris with the harbour of Antwerp, and therefore Rotterdam. The proposed project costs are EUR 4.2 billion. Suppose that the real cost of making this canal will be more around EUR 8.5 billion and suppose dollar-euro parity, this means that for the price of the US Governement bailout you can create 1000 similar canals.
That's 106,000 kilometers, or two-and-a-half times around the earth.


Now that is what I call perspective,
Zaaf