Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Visualizing Obama's budget cuts
In case you were wondering how big President Obama's promised $100 million in budget cuts looks compared to the total federal budget or even the deficit, this video ought to help:
Wow, there's some tough managerial discipline. I'm sure Ford and Toyota are hoping he brings the same budgetary scalpal to General Motors' bloated overhead.
My only objection, since I am a numismatist, is that the narrator refers to one cent pieces as "pennies." Please. Pennies are an English thing, and we do not have them here. What are we, self-hating Americans? 'Course, he redeems himself by pulling out the "wheaties," which I would do, too, but still.
CWCID: Megan McArdle.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Apr 30, 12:12:00 AM:
Not so long ago in Britain and the Commonwealth, to "spend a penny" was the polite way to announce that you were going to the toilet.. which is seemingly the place where a lot of your money is going.
Then again, another saying was "watch the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves".
Either way, both comments are useful in the present context.
JC
By 
Hal Dall, MD, at
Thu Apr 30, 01:42:00 AM:
Big number problem, indeed!
Another way to think of it:
If the budget deficit (1.7 tril) was a 390 pound person, what would $100 million represent?
Answer is by Teflon Don (late of acutepolitics)at: http://chronicpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/04/still-confused.html
1 gram.
By , at
Thu Apr 30, 08:36:00 AM:
Hey, my (British) Grandad used to refer to the five-shilling piece (25p) as a "dollar" from the days when the pound was fixed at the rate of £1=$4.
By , at
Thu Apr 30, 08:42:00 AM:
Same here, numismatist, that is. I don't actively collect US coinage from circulation any more. There's nothing much interesting there any way. Since 1969 I've purchased two uncirculated sets and two proof sets each year from the US mint. The 1973 dollar in the uncirculated set is particularly valuable since that was the only ones they minted that year,
My late father collected, hoarded more like, pre-1965 silver content coins as well as the pre-1959 wheaties. I have more than 100 lbs. of them in the attic. I also have his coin collection which he started in the '20s.
JLW III
By , at
Thu Apr 30, 09:02:00 AM:
"started in the 20s" ... nice!
In my opinion, the nicest coins ever minted pretty much stopped after the 20s. Sure, the Buffalo nickel and walking liberty halves continued, as did Lincoln cents, but the modern stuff is quite boring.
With such an early collection, I'll be you have many of the keys, particularly if he bought coins to fill in the tough stuff that may not have been circulating even then.
I still look at my change, and do ocassionally find a wheat or silver coin, but those days are more or less gone. Now my collecting is confined to buying from a friend who buys it as scrap and lets me cherry pick for a small profit to him.
