Just How Much Is $700 Billion?

As the Wall Street bailout negotiations continue, the world is growing too accustomed, I fear, to the oft-mentioned $700 billion figure. As a reminder just how enormous a sum of cash that represents, consider the following:

If you stacked $100 bills atop each other, a $700 billion pile would rise more than 517 miles.

Another device: If you had 700 billion $1 bills and spent one per second, it would require 22,190 years to spend it all.

If you’re an investment banker, or course, it takes less time.