The difference between a million, billion and trillion - do presenters get it?

darkman2

At first it was kind of funny listening to radio presenters on every station get mixed up saying "million" instead of "billion" in relation to economic matters. That was 4 years ago. It's not funny any more. It's bloody irritating. All I can say is that myself, a normal person, and anyone I know that discusses economic matters NEVER makes that mistake. Seriously get a grip. It's not that difficult to know the difference. Sometimes I think it is done on purpose.

I am fed up hearing ".........*random number* million......sorry I mean billion" on the radio day after day (in fact alot of the time it is not corrected). That fella with the voice that has yet to break on Newstalk Breakfast is the worst. In fact having what sounds like an adolescent sharing his advice and thoughts on important matters with us in the morning has made me switch to RTE very recently..(and it's the exact same there with numbers)..but that's another issue.

The money thing is infuriating at this stage.

Wertz

Yup, don't know who I was listening to this morning but the discussion was revolving around Anglo bonds and IMF stuff and also mentioned Greece and the wider issues...the mix up between the singular trillions and then about 100's of MILLIONS rather than 100's of BILLIONS was frightening.

I always liked Rory Bremner's stage backdrop on his show that simplified the concept of what the respective amounts actually comprise in a series of solid squares increasing by a factor of 10 for each figure, ranging from 1000 up to 10 trillion. They really get the idea across of the huge sums being bandied about...

Caledonman

darkman2 wrote: »

At first it was kind of funny listening to radio presenters on every station get mixed up saying "million" instead of "billion" in relation to economic matters. That was 4 years ago. It's not funny any more. It's bloody irritating. All I can say is that myself, a normal person, and anyone I know that discusses economic matters NEVER makes that mistake. Seriously get a grip. It's not that difficult to know the difference. Sometimes I think it is done on purpose.

I am fed up hearing ".........*random number* million......sorry I mean billion" on the radio day after day (in fact alot of the time it is not corrected). That fella with the voice that has yet to break on Newstalk Breakfast is the worst. In fact having what sounds like an adolescent sharing his advice and thoughts on important matters with us in the morning has made me switch to RTE very recently..(and it's the exact same there with numbers)..but that's another issue.

The money thing is infuriating at this stage.

I am guessing that you are speaking about Chris Donoghue who is on with Ivan Yeats. He is very irritating, frequently calls Ivan 'Mr Yeats' and the guy that does sport 'Ush'. If only what you mention were the worst habits he has. Awful. Ivan takes the complete piss out of him.

darkman2

Aye. I just can't take the program seriously. And all the Premiership football stuff aswell. It's just not what I want to hear that early in the morning. I want the news if i'm tuning into a current affairs program. I want someone giving me opinions that actually does not sound like a teenager and act like one on air. Not saying I hate the guy or anything like that. Just think he is on the wrong show on the wrong station.

kraggy

What the hell a young buck like O'Donoghue is doing presenting a morning current affairs programme is beyone me.

He can't possibly have the life experience to be knowledgable about the economy, politics etc to conduct a decent interview and deduct the crucial information.

And it shows.

bamboozle

Caledonman wrote: »

I am guessing that you are speaking about Chris Donoghue who is on with Ivan Yeats. He is very irritating, frequently calls Ivan 'Mr Yeats' and the guy that does sport 'Ush'. If only what you mention were the worst habits he has. Awful. Ivan takes the complete piss out of him.

buttt he's having the craic with Mr Yates!
Newstalk mix up their millions with billions, RTE's morning ireland presenters cannot tell the time and often read out the time an hour later than it is

Hermy

Newstalk regularly get things wrong. I think it's to encourage people to text in and point out the errors thus increasing station revenue.

Wertz

Alan Dukes and someone else on with Finnucane yesterday morning made the same points about the "confusion" between millions and billions too and those amounts being quoted in/on the media...

mrsdewinter

Actually, I thought it was George Lee's show and that Mayo man who teaches maths in UCC. I used to find his pop quizzes on Marian quite annoying but he was bang on the, er, money when he spoke about the way these sums are bandied about as if a billion is a synonym for a million.

delaad

What's the difference anyway, folks.....in terms of noughts?

Wertz

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Actually, I thought it was George Lee's show and that Mayo man who teaches maths in UCC. I used to find his pop quizzes on Marian quite annoying but he was bang on the, er, money when he spoke about the way these sums are bandied about as if a billion is a synonym for a million.

Of course you're right mrsdewinter...I don't think I was even listening to Finnucane on saturday.


As for the difference:

Million - 1,000,000

Billion - 1,000,000,000

Trillion - 1,000,000,000,000