billions and billions is so 1980's

Quadrillion? That’s a number only astronomers use, right? You know…as in the North Star is “just” a couple of quadrillion miles away.

But, ominously enough, Earth’s economists are actually starting to use it, too. No, not to discuss the amount of dollars out there (though it might feel like the Fed just pumped a quadrillion greenbacks into the economy). The Bank of International Settlements recently reported that the amount of outstanding derivatives has now reached the $1.14 quadrillion mark ($548 Trillion in listed credit derivatives plus $596 trillion in notional [or face value] OTC derivatives).

Whether you’re an astronomer or an economist, that’s an awfully big number. In case you need a mega-number refresher course, million is followed by billion which is followed by trillion which is followed by quadrillion (and, okay, quintillion and sextillion follow that). Yes, it takes a thousand trillion to make up one quadrillion, and, sadly, that’s where we now find ourselves with the derivative situation.