Amidst ballooning national debt and multiple 12-figure bailouts an Internet meme recently emerged describing 1 trillion in ways the average person can appreciate. For example did you know that 1 trillion seconds is approximately 32 000 years? Or that a quilt stitched with 1 trillion dollar bills would cover the entire state of Connecticut?We were so inspired we decided to whip out the old abacus and make some calculations of our own. For the sake of all-imortant perspective here are a few other things 1 trillion is equal to. What Else Does One Trillion Equal?   It would take ...

When the fire started they told us not to worry. They told us to remain calm. They said they had it under control. But a full-fledged economic conflagration eventually brought the world to its knees. Commerce ground to a halt banks hoarded cash century-old financial institutions buckled. Deprived of its warm lubricating bath of credit the financial system has suffered many casualties. A few of the worst offenders -- AIG (AIG) Fannie Mae (FNM) Freddie Mac (FRE) Citigroup (C) and General Motors (GM) -- received government lifelines to stay in the game. Others -- including Bear Stearns Lehman Brothers Countrywide IndyMac ...

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives or the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin2008 in Review: Has the Easy Market Call Come and Gone?As regular readers know I've had a cautious even bearish view towards equities and credit over the past couple of years. The handwriting was on the wall and both seemed woefully overvalued. That being said my long-standing target for the S&P 500 of 750-800 was reached this autumn a level that has held even in the face of awful economic news. ...

Editor's Note: James Quinn is a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. James has held high level financial positions with a retailer homebuilder and a university in his 22-year career.Historian and writer Jame Truslow Adams wrote in his 1931 book Epic of America:“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful ...

Destruction of Household WealthInquiring minds are diving into the Z.1 Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States for the third quarter 2008. It's a mammoth 124-page publication that came out on December 11th but some probably haven't seen it yet.The following chart comes from page 113 of the PDF.R.100 Change in Net Worth of Households and Nonprofit Organizations in Billions of dollars; not seasonally adjusted Click to enlarge.The chart shows a massive reduction in net worth of households over the last 4 quarters.  2007 Q4 -$1.46 trillion 2008 Q1 -$2.42 trillion 2008 Q2 -$0.39 trillion 2008 Q3 -$2.81 ...