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> Banks and other financial companies have shifted at least £800 million ($1 trillion) worth of assets Hang on, that's not right. Do they mean "£800 billion ($
by PhasmaFelis 8y ago
> Banks and other financial companies have shifted at least £800 million ($1 trillion) worth of assets
Hang on, that's not right. Do they mean "£800 billion ($1 trillion)", or "£800 million ($1 billion)"?
- arethuza 8y agoSeems to have been fixed: "£800 billion ($1 trillion)"
- minikites 8y agoPerhaps related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales?
- Symbiote 8y agoUnlikely, the long scale form has been obsolete in Britain for decades. I've heard people say things like "thousand million", but I've never heard "milliard", and never heard "billion" to mean 10¹².
- LeonM 8y agoYep, this was added at the end of the article: > Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the value of assets moving in pounds.
- pjc50 8y agoWhen I looked at it they'd fixed it to £800 billion. I was wondering if someone had accidentally used the old UK billion meaning a "million million". (Whole article is very likely to get flagged off, btw)
- lorenzhs 8y agoI don't know why this was downvoted, but the UK officially used the "long scale" (million = 10^6, milliard = 10^9, billion = 10^12) until 1974, although the "short scale" (billion = 10^9, trillion = 10^12) had become increasingly popular before that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Use. In most of Europe, the long scale is still used today.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]