How large is large?

Give me a large enough lever and a place to stand, said Archimedes, and I can move the world. Well, our lever may finally be big enough. Apparently, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association is announcing that the market in credit default swaps is $62.2 trillion, just about double its size last year. That's a big number: $62,200,000,000,000. But the mind can't grasp all those zeros--it just sort of slides past them, like a car skidding on too much ice. But here's something that might make it a little easier: $62.2 trillion is just about equal to the entire output of the world last year. Every single thing made or grown, bought or sold--at least as best we can count. Kind of makes you wonder what a run on the market might look like, hmmm?

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2008/04/how-large-is-large/3251/