Depending on one's point of view, the US economy is either doing well or crumbling. Wall Street Journal readers are happy; The Economist readers are worried. Corporations are flourishing, while individuals who once constituted the majority of the "middle class" are in trouble. This gives rise to my wondering what you people think when you hear the word, "economy." Do you think of it in a global sense, an individual sense, or a mixture? Do you think in the sense of "thrift" or the sense of "overall financial activity," or...?

Well, the latest US budget included three-quarters of a trillion (NB trillion, not billion) dollars on defence. The Daily Reckoning (a commentary on the financial world) suggests that the latest Bush budget could most accurately be described as "...as [allocating] hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t have to buy weapons we don’t need to fight enemies that don’t exist..."

I'd go along with that.

I'm not sure what this last has to do with the question raised. And it seems to take us from a word discussion towards into a potentially-divisive political spat.

The budget was released less than 48 hours ago. If we must discuss it, let's wait until the commentators have had time for more than a shoot-from-the-hip analysis.

(By the way, the official figure is $481.4 billion, not three-quarters of a trillion, though it's being disputed.)

Just to be clear Richard, you are using a trillion to mean 10^12, which is one million * one million? I've heard that in Britain, a billion is 10^12, what we in America refer to as a trillion.

Asa, when I read your post, I played a game with myself, called Guess the Response: Who will post the first response and what will it say...and I won!

When I think of the economy I think of our national economy. I also realize that there are a lot of ways of looking at it and many different perspectives. I don't tend to think of economy in the individual sense, though.

quote:

Just to be clear Richard, you are using a trillion to mean 10^12, which is one million * one million? I've heard that in Britain, a billion is 10^12, what we in America refer to as a trillion.

I am not sure. The quote was the Daily Reckoning's, not mine. They don't say which meaning they are using for billion or trillion.

I will ask them.