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Wouldn’t an English Billionaire Need to Have 2 Trillion Dollars?

by VincePlato on February 15th, 2008, 1:52pm Login or Register to post comments

Could the British authors help me out here?  In England a billion is not 1000 millions like in France or the USA but it is rather a million millions. So if the Englishman was a British Billionaire, then allowing about $2 to the pound, wouldn’t he have to have roughly 2 trillion dollars in assets (using the USA and French system)?  Do you really have any British Billionaires? 

Thanks,

Vince 

 

 

“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince

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Um, I'm confused ......

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 2:18pm by KatherineT

wouldn't a Britsh Billionaire have a billion pounds sterling in assets? .... or a billion euros?  .... I would think the Billionaire part refers to the currency of his country not the American dollar  .... ie an Australian Billionaire would have a billion Aussie dollars in assets .... a New Zealand Billionaire would have a billion New Zealand dollars in assets .... a Canadian Billionaire would have a billion Canadian dollars ... and so on

 

or are you saying that the British don't have a number known as billion?  ... I'm confused, as I thought numbers are universal and a billion refers to 1,000 million across the globe  

 

 

~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog

Yes Vince is correct

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 4:00pm by Sadhbh

the British billion has 12 zeros whereas the US Billion is the French "milliardaire" with nine zeros

The UK isn't in the euro system so he would need one thousand billion pounds (is that your definition of a trillion?)

because of course the British trillion has eighteen zeros = one million British billions

We can go on like this all night LOL

Hugs

Sadhbh 

Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs

It was my understanding. .....

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 5:02pm by KatherineT

I believe sometime in the 70's the British gov't made the 1,000 million = billion for official gov't use    ... for scientific and statistical purposes, I had thought it was deemed that the number was required to be universal

 

have to ask dh .... he's the mathmatical wiz 

 

unless for currency it goes a different route ?? 

 

~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog

Katherine's right

Posted on February 16th, 2008, 1:42am by suefromdevon

Just asked my hubby, and 1,000 million = billion over here since the 70s

Sue

If a British Billionaire, cashed in all his pounds....

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 6:26pm by VincePlato

Hi All:

               I really don’t know the answer to this question. While the Arabic numbers are the same universally, what we call those numbers in different languages (and apparently even the same language) can differ.

      To make it simpler:   If a British Billionaire, cashed in all his pounds and exchanged them for dollars, would he get about 2 trillion dollars in exchange?

 

         Thanks,

 

             Vince

“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince

Vince .....

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 7:08pm by KatherineT

According to my bank today, the British pound sterling to US dollar has an exchange of 1.9224  .... 1 pound sterling equals 1.92 US dollars

therefore, 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling would equal 1,922,400,000 US dollars ... or to shorten that it would be 1 billion pound sterling would equal 1.92 billion US dollars

 

as I said, in 1975 the British treasury agreed that they would adopt the "word" billion to mean 1,000 million 

 

does that explain what you are asking?

 

~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog

Only in England

Posted on February 15th, 2008, 9:17pm by VincePlato

         Hi KatherineT:  

         Yes, it does help explain things. This information was not in any of my dictionaries or in any of the definitions I checked on Google. It must be strange to have one "billion" for money and one "billion" for everything else.  But as they sometimes say: "Only in England."       

 Thanks,   

                     Vince

“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince

Katherine - the British treasury may have accepted that

Posted on February 16th, 2008, 2:38am by Sadhbh

definition as a billion, but most British people still take Billion to mean twelve zeros

Of course only the Queen and Richard Branson (and a few select others) need to worry about the nitty gritty details Laughing

A million euros would be enough to keep me happily in booksSealed

Hugs

Sadhbh 

Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs

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