Global writedowns set to hit $1 trillion
The total of writedowns and credit losses in the global financial sector over the last year is poised to reach $1 trillion (€748bn), according to data from Bloomberg.
To put that figure – $986.8bn over four quarters – in context, it represents a stack of dollar bills 66,970 miles high, (one third of the way to the moon), a pile which would take a bank teller’s standard automatic note-checking machine 1,564 years and seven months to count out.
In addition:
• At the current rate, it would take the US Treasury 162 years and four months to print them.
• The stack of bills would weigh 970,973 tons, equivalent to 155,000 average-sized African elephants or 2,417 fully laden Boeing 747 jumbo jets.
• Laid end to end, the bills would be 95.6 million miles long, just far enough to reach the sun.
• Woven together as a carpet, they would cover a city the size of London 3.5 times over.
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