Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 16 WorldNetDaily column by Joseph Farah cited purportedly alarming statistics about the stimulus plan, then added:
Let's consider the real meaning of these numbers, courtesy of WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi, a trained economist:
- If you had gone into business on the day Jesus was born, and your business lost a million dollars a day, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose $1 trillion.
- $1 trillion dollars divided by 300 million Americans comes out to $3,333 per person.
- One trillion $1 bills stacked one on top of the other would reach nearly 68,000 miles into the sky, about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon.
- Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to contain about 200 billion stars. So, if each star cost $1, $1 trillion would buy five Milky Way galaxies full of stars.
First, Corsi is not a "trained economist" in any normal sense. As we've noted, Corsi's financial background is primarily in marketing, and he was a principal in a group that launched an investment venture in Poland in 1995 that eventually lost about $1.2 million (which Corsi won't talk about). Corsi's practical experience in dealing with matters of the economy is lacking, to say the least.
Second, would a genuine "trained economist" bother with such trivia as making analogies about dollar and stars and stacks of bill reaching to the moon? Indeed, that's the sign of someone who's not serious about the economy.
Third: Remember that Corsi is the guy who's following in Andy Martin's footsteps -- yet another reason to not take anything he says seriously. It's too bad that Farah does, because it means we shouldn't take seriously anything he says, either.