A Million, A Billion, A Trillion

In the last few days I’ve heard the number trillion used more than I can ever recall.  In the instances where I can recall hearing trillion used it was always in a statement like, “there must be a trillion grains of sand on the beach”, or “I’ve tried to balance my check book a trillion times, and it’s always off”.  I don’t recollect people using the designation trillion when talking about something specific as in, “those crazy idiots in congress are going to cost us a trillion dollars with this bailout”. But now that I think about it, the number trillion has been used increasingly for some time to describe stuff.  For example: 1. The gross domestic product...