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MyCompanyPension.co.uk - Helping members of occupational pension schemes to better understand their benefits.
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:: Blog | February 2009 (16 blogs) | Question: what dwarfs pension deficits?
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Question: what dwarfs pension deficits?
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Until the credit crunch appeared, one of the largest figures we were subjected to was the cumulative deficits of pension funds. According to the Pension Protection Fund’s own figures (PPF 7800 Index) in June 2006, the total deficit - of schemes that were in deficit - amounted to £66bn. Fast forward to January 2009, and the corresponding figure is £204bn.
That however, is dwarfed by the $800bn rescue package proposed by the US Government to kick-start their economy out of what is otherwise projected to be a long and deep recession. That’s on top of what has already been used and pledged so far.
But before we get nonchalant about such figures, I would pose this question to you: taking a quick guess, in no more than 10 seconds (i.e. no calculators), using $1,000 dollar bills, how tall would be an $800bn stack of money? I’ll give you a clue – there’s approximately $1m dollars worth of $1,000 dollar bills in 4 inches.
I’ve put the answer at the foot of the page, and I’ll bet you don’t get too close!
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Mike Jones, MyCompanyPension.co.uk Ltd, February 11th 2009
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Question
The credit-crunch rescue package being proposed by the US Government is approximately $800bn. How tall would that be as a pile of money?
Using $1,000 dollar bills, a stack of $1m would be 4 inches tall (10cm).
$1m = 4 inches
$1bn = 4,000 inches
$800bn = 3,200,000 inches (800 x 4,000)
There are 63,360 inches to the mile.
So, $800bn = 3,200,000 / 63,360
= 50.5 miles
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