980: Money/Transcript

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Contents


Below is the complete transcript of the huge version of the comic 980: Money.

Below in each panels section all these groups are listed as best as possible starting more or less from the top left going towards the bottom right. Within the groups, the individual items are listed similarly, but, if they're displayed in columns/rows, they will be used as well to define the order of the items. In groups with a given title, items that are on the list, will be indented to show where they belong. Similarly, if there is sub text on a given item, the text will be indented as well. If there is a title, it will be written in bold letters in the transcript.

Money[edit]

[Title panel at the top left]
Money
A chart of
almost
all of it,
where it is, and
what it can do
[Almost is written in a very small font compared to the rest]
[There are 5 large panels below the title panel, each with a series of plots, comparing the values of various things. Each large panel is covered in colored squares, and each single square represents a power of ten (10^(3*n) for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4), be it single dollars, thousands of dollars, or even trillions of dollars. Below is a section for each of these panels]

Dollars[edit]

Completed on 2014-06-07

[This section is right below the title panel at the top left - it covers the price of a single coffees up to the hourly salaries of CEOs.]
Dollars

Important notes[edit]

[There is a box with a note next to the title. The first line of text is written in a dark orange color - the same color as the frame of the box. It is the only text that is not black - apart from the white on black background for the main panels title.]
Important notes:
This chart is entirely in 2011 dollars.
Every value associated with a year before 2011 was adjusted for inflation using the consumer Price Index.
Nearly every amount has a cited source - when possible,
a scholarly work or government publication. A list of
sources is available at http://xkcd.com/980/sources/
[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a single dollar. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of green squares equal to this amount - so for the 1 dollar bill there is 1 square, and for the 1000 dollar bill 1000 squares.]

$1 bill[edit]

$1 bill
$10 bill
Apples (one dozen) $5.68
Dollar Menu item $1.00
Daily interest on average credit card debt ($9,840) $5.63
Starbucks Coffee $2.00

Average single US restaurant meal[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]
Average single US restaurant meal $35.65
Average meal at the 20 costliest San Francisco restaurants $85.27

Game consoles[edit]

Game consoles
PS3 $250
Xbox 360 $200
Wii $150

Dinner for four[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]
Dinner for four
(Lighter blocks show value of time required using median US wage of $16.27/hour)
Homemade rice and pinto beans $9.26 (With time cost of two hours of shopping, travel, prep and cleanup: $41.80)
Homemade chicken dinner $13.78 (With time cost of two hours of shopping, travel, prep and cleanup: $46.32)
McDonalds $27.89 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $36.03)
Arby’s $34.00 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $42.13)
Chili’s $69.64 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $77.78)
Outback Steakhouse $109.82 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $117.96)

Loose change value per pound[edit]

Loose change value per pound $12.80
Loose change with no quarters $5.40
Annual value of pennies received in change (at one daily cash purchase) $7.30
Loose change with no pennies $17.40

Median household daily income[edit]

Median household daily income $136.28
[The heading stands to the right of the block of squares. The first third of the blocks are a darker green. The two parts of the blocks are labeled]
Taxes $32.16
After-tax $104.12

$1000 bill[edit]

$1000 bill (Grover Cleveland, discontinued)
$500 bill (William McKinley, discontinued)

Paperback book[edit]

Paperback book $6.80
Hardcover book $32.27
Audio book $50.42
Kindle $79.00
New video game $49.99
Traditional cell phone average monthly fee $77.36
Smartphone average monthly fee $110.30
Kindle keyboard + 3G $139

One-gallon jug of loose change[edit]

One-gallon jug of loose change $270

Pet ownership[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]
Pet ownership
ASPCA estimates
Annual cost of rabbit ownership $730
Annual cost of dog ownership $695
Annual cost of cat ownership $670
Annual cost of fish ownership $35
Annual cost of bird ownership $200
Annual cost of small mammal ownership $300

Kindle Fire[edit]

Kindle Fire $199
Men’s suit $400
Low-end bicycle $190
Basic iPad $499
iPad+3G+ a year of data $869
Basic Macbook Air $999
Netbook $249.99
iPod Nano $129
Mac Mini $599
Comcast cable internet for a year ($59.99/month) $719.88

Traditional cell phone average annual bill[edit]

Traditional cell phone average annual bill $928.30
Smartphone average annual bill $1,320

Worker/CEO comparison[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed in together]
Worker/CEO comparison
1965 production worker average hourly wage $19.61
2007 production worker average hourly wage $19.71
Typical 1965 CEO pay for the same period $490.31
Typical 2007 CEO pay for the same period $5419.97

Thousands[edit]

Complete on 2014-06-13
[This section is directly below the Dollars section – it discusses values from around $1000 to $1,000,000, including a dissection of the song If I had $1000000.]
Thousands
[The Dollars section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at the top of the Thousands section with lines indicating this zoom]
[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to thousand dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of orange squares equal to the number of thousand dollars in the amount - so for a 1000 dollar item there will be one square. And for a small house at a price of $100,000 there will be 100 squares.]

Typical household net worth by head of household’s age[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]
Typical household net worth by head of household’s age
[There is two columns of blocks across from each other, with these headings:]
…in 1984 …in 2009
[On each side of two columns are given the values. In between the columns are written the age range:]
$11,680 <35 years $3,710
$72,090 35-44 years $40,140
$115,060 45-54 years $103,040
$149,240 55-64 years $164,270
$122,100 >65 years $172,820

One thousand dollars[edit]

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand green squares set to equal (=) one orange square to indicate the size of an orange square]
=
One thousand dollars $1,000

Raising a child to age 17[edit]

[The title of this next item is below the block – the indications are shown from top to bottom, with lines indicating low and mid income, and the squares between low and high income are drawn in a lighter color]
Raising a child to age 17
Upper income $302,860
Middle income $206,920
Lower income $206,920

Vacation package from New England[edit]

[The title line of text is written below the next line of text which is also below the blocks – there is a bracket between the title and this other line:]
Vacation package from New England
All-inclusive one-week trip for two to St. Lucia resort (incl. flights) $3,204
Twenty week-long Hawaiian vacations $136,020
[The title line of text is written below these next two lines of text – these are again below each of the two sets of blocks – there is a bracket between the title and the other text]
Typical trip from US west coast
Typical week-long Hawaii trip for two (incl. flights) $6,801
Typical weekend Hawaii trip for two (incl. flights) $2,863

Cancer treatment including chemo[edit]

Cancer treatment including chemo $117,260
Estimated one-year Hogwarts cost (incl. tuition) $43,000
Seven-year Hogwarts degree $301,000
Average community college tuition $10,340 One year $2,580
Average in-state university tuition $28,920 One year $7,230

Golden Opulence ice cream sundae[edit]

Golden Opulence ice cream sundae $1,000
Average smartphone annual cost $1.320
Average used car $8,910
Average new car $27,230
High-end bicycle $1,500
One Starbucks latte per day $1.820

United States 2005 per capita income[edit]

United States 2005 per capita income $32,360
Switzerland 2005 per capita income $29,910
Germany 2005 per capita income $27,550
UK 2005 per capita income $23,240
France 2005 per capita income $16,400
China 2005 per capita income $3,540
Brazil 2005 per capita income $5,540

Small rural house[edit]

Small rural house $100,000
Typical new home $224,910
Daily sales of Minecraft $193,500

Average individual health insurance annual premium[edit]

Average individual health insurance annual premium $5,430
[The five blocks of this item are divided with the top four in lighter color and brackets indicate each group and are named]
Employer
Employee
Typing F-U-N-D-S $10,000
A daily pack of cigarettes for a year (NJ) $3,050
Waist deep half-room ball pit $2,400
All 30 bestselling game consoles (refurb, eBay) $2,640

Annual cost of car ownership[edit]

Annual cost of car ownership $3,650
[The title of this next item is below the blocks. These are divided in two, with the last two of the six blocks drawn in a lighter color. Lines go from each part with labels above the blocks]
Typical annual household spending $5,650
Home
Restaurants
Average household CC debt $9,960
Annual cost to carry that debt $2,090

Typical annual housing cost for various cities[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]
Typical annual housing cost for various cities
based on military's Basic Allowance for Housing for an E1 servicemember with no dependents
NYC $25,416
San Francisco $21,888
Boston $18,216
Los Angeles $17,640
DC $16,380
Chicago $13,664
Worcester $12,456
Houston $11,888
Minneapolis $10,908
Detroit $10,080
Salt Lake City $9,108
Scranton $8,604

Initial seat on Virgin Galactic suborbital flight[edit]

Initial seat on Virgin Galactic suborbital flight $200,000
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding cake $78,000
Kate Middleton’s wedding dress $350,000
Flower cost for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding $800,000

Value of an investment[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]
Value of an investment of $1,000/year
(Not changing with inflation) for 30 years at 5% annual interest:
[There is 30 block in three rows of ten from 1 to 30 years. The increasing investment is shown in the normal color, but the interest (when above $500) is shown in a brown color. Except for the last after 30 years – see below. There is also two additional blocks shown to the right – see below.]
1 year $1,000
5 years $5,526
10 years $12,850
15 years $21,580
20 years $33,070
25 years $47,730
30 years $66,440
[Right of the 30 years blocks are two brackets marking the top and the bottom half. The blocks in the top part are gray – this represents those that would have been brown for the other 29 years. Then there are three light orange in the middle, and the rest is the normal color. These squares are the $30,000 invested. The top part including the three light squares are labeled together as are the bottom orange squares:]
Cost of 3% inflation
Real value $27,370
[There are two blocks to the right of these 30 blocks. The top has 30 orange and 26 brown squares]
$1,000/yr for 30 years (inflation-adjusted) at a 4% real return (long-term stock + dividend average) $56,080
[The bottom block has 30 squares, only 12 orange the rest is drawn in the light color also used for the middle blocks for the 30 years blocks]
$30,000 saved in a mattress for 30 years.
[A bracket indicate the bottom orange squares]
Real value $12,360
[Below is the following note in light gray text]
Note: the reason the investment appears to lose ground against inflation is that only a portion of the $30,000 is earning interest in a given year, but the entire amount is effectively suffering from deflation. If the money were all invested from the start, it would earn a constant 5%-3%=2% return and beat inflation handily.

Total cost to buy and own selected vehicles for five years[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light orange square with rounded corners]
Total cost to buy and own selected vehicles for five years
(Lighter blocks shown fuel cost, assuming 15,000 miles/year)
Honda Insight $27,874
Jeep Patriot $35,425
BMW Z4 $61,312
Toyota Camry $34,697
Honda CR-V $35,183
Hyundai Sonata $34,644
Nissan Cube $29,383
Toyota Prius $38,771
Honda Fit $28,745
Ford Explorer $43,524
smart for two $29,629
Chevy Volt $42,180
[For the Chevy squares the last ones to the right are light green and they are marked with a bracket labeled:]
Tax credit
Ford F-150 $48,734
Porsche 911 $91,590
[The next section inside the orange frame is singled out in another black frame:]
If gas were $10/gallon:
Toyota Prius $48,990
Honda Fit $45,233
Ford Explorer $69,076
smart for two $45,058
Chevy Volt $50,612
[For the Chevy squares the last ones to the right are light green and they are marked with a bracket labeled:]
Tax credit
Ford F-150 $77,111

Typical annual household income[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame]
Typical annual household income
Bottom 20% $10,200
Second 20% $24,800
Middle 20% $44,400
Fourth 20% $76,100
Top 10% $201,100
Top 1% $822,000
Top 1/500th $2,080,000

Median US household income[edit]

Median US household income $51,270
Cost per household served of US Rural Utilities Service program to expand broadband access $359,790

If I Had $1000000[edit]

[These first six items are singled out as they are framed by a light orange square with rounded corners]
Cost of the items the singer in “If I Had $1000000” would buy you in order to win your love $263,330
Furniture $21,160
Plymouth Reliant $3,000
Tree fort $2,120
Joseph Merrick’s remains N/A
(Held in Royal London Hospital collection and not available for purchase)
House $224,820
[The rest of the items are located in a small square with green inside. This square is zoomed up 1000 times and the items in this large white frame (that breaks the border of the original frame) are given with the green one dollar squares from the dollar section:]
Tiny fridge $99.08
Gourmet pre-wrapped sausages (2) $34.48
Kraft Dinner (two double servings) $3.06
Expensive ketchup $10.75
Faux fur coat $198.00
Limo ride to the store $186.59

Total lifetime income[edit]

Total lifetime income from age 25-65 at $50,000/year after 25% taxes (including Social Security) $1,500,000

Millions[edit]

Complete on 2014-06-17

[This section is to the right of the Thousands section below the Billions section. This section focuses on $1,000,000 to $1,000,000,000, with a large section on campaign contributions of American political presidential campaigns, values of expensive works of art and J. K. Rowling.]
Millions
[The Thousands section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown below the Millions title to the far left of the section - with lines indicating this zoom]
[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a million dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of gray squares equal to the number of million dollars in the amount - so for a 3,000,000 dollar item, like a 30-second Super Bowl ad slot there will be three squares. And next to a lady with a fortune of $1,000,000,000 (like J.K. Rowling) there will be 1000 squares.]

One million dollars[edit]

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand orange squares set to equal (=) one gray square to indicate the size of a gray square]
=
One million dollars $1,000,000

Amount Dr. Evil thought he was demanding from the 1997 world[edit]

Amount Dr. Evil thought he was demanding from the 1997 world $6,630,000
Amount he was actually demanding $1,380,000
Most expensive production car (Bugatti Veyron) $2,400,000
Amount needed to live comfortably off investments $4,090,000
Most expensive car ever sold (1957 Ferrari 250) $16,390,000
Minecraft sales by October 2011 $56,780,000
Large city office building $100 million
Annual cost to run Wikipedia $18,500,000
30-second Super Bowl ad slot $3,000,000
EPA value of a human life $8,120,000
Six Million Dollar Man (2011 dollars) $29,870,000

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. This is also part of a section in the thousands panel]
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding
Flowers $800,000
Security $20,000,000
Total cost $800,000,000

$50,000 salary for 40 years after 25% taxes[edit]

[This first item was also given as the last item in the Thousands panel]
$50,000 salary for 40 years after 25% taxes $1,500,000
Lifetime cost to avoid changing your oil by abandoning your car and buying a new one whenever you hit 5.000 miles $3,270,000

Qianlong Chinese vase sold in 2010[edit]

Qianlong Chinese vase sold in 2010 $83,710,000
Leonardo’s Codex Leicester (bought by Bill Gates) $45,930,000
Estimated value of first-edition Gutenberg Bible $34,610,000
Double Eagle coin $9,330,000
(Alle destroyed uncirculated save a few stolen from the US Mint)
Treskilling Yellow postage stamp $2,780,000
(At $50 billion/lb possibly the world’s most expensive thing by weight)
1297 Magna Carta original coypy signed by Edvard I $21,890,000
Painting from The Card Players series (rumor) $250,000,000
[Below the next text in brackets are a square bracket encompassing the two items below ]
(Both bought by David Geffen)
Willem de Kooning’s “Woman III” (2006 auction) $168,780,000
Jackson Pollock’s “No. 5, 1948” (2006 auction) $153,440,000
Airbus A380 $264 million
Mona Lisa assessed value $730,660,000

Prizes[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]
Prizes
[The first text after each item is written in small gray font, but before the prize, which is the normal bold font.]
$64,000 in 1955
when “The $64,000 Question” first aired
$528,310
£1,000,000 in 1998
when the UK “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired
$2,270,000
$1,000,000 in 1999
when the US “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired
$1,330,000
$1,000,000 in 1955
when the TV show “The Millionaire” aired
$8,250,000
$1,000,000 in 1931
when the film “The Millionaire” opened
$14,530,000

Bitcoins[edit]

[The first text is written next to the normal gray squares in the bottom left corner of all the blocks. The rest of the blocks are light gray and the second line of text is written directly beneath all the squares]
Market value of all Bitcoins as of 11/2011 $22,819,797
Market value of all Bitcoins as at July 2011 peak price $210,000,000

Elections[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light gray square with rounded corners]
Elections
[In this section the squares that directly belongs to the democrats are blue and those that belong to the republicans are red. If there are other groups they are light gray. If the subject of the squares is not directly related to one or the other group the squares are the normal gray color. These squares never mix with the other three colors in this Elections section.]
2012 presidential fundraising $188,260,000
as of 09/2011
[The squares are divided in to one blue block, six red and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The blue is the last to be mentioned below the squares]
Herman Cain $5,380,000
Jon Huntsman $4,510,000
Michele Bachmann $9,870,000
Ron Paul $12,790,000
Rick Perry $17,200,000
Mitt Romney $32,610,000
Barack Obama $88,420,000
2008 presidential campaign fundraising $1,860,390,000
Excluding candidate Lee L. Mercer, Jr of Houston, who claimed, in his combined FEC filings, $900,005,507 in fundraising and $900,006,431 in campaign spending.
[The squares are divided in to three blue blocks, four red and one light gray all intermixed. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the gray block, then a red, blue, red, red, blue, red and blue:]
Other
Ron Paul $32,480,000
John Edwards $64,410,000
Rudy Giuliani $66,520,000
Mitt Romney $116,730,000
Barack Obama $799,670,000
John McCain $394,280,000
Hilary Clinton $259,050,000
2004 presidential campaign fundraising $1,006,810,000
[The squares are divided in to one red block, four blue and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the four blue, then the gray and finally the red:]
Howard Dean $61,620,000
Wesley Clark $34,610,000
John Edwards $39,310,000
John Kerry $352,090,000
Other
George W. Bush $429,660,000
2000 presidential campaign fundraising $805,120,000
[The squares are divided in to four red blocks, two blue and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the gray block, then red, red, blue, red, blue and red:]
Other
Pat Buchanan $37,440,000
John McCain $75,180,000
Bill Bradley $65,680,000
Steve Forbes $11,440,000
Al Gore $170,520,000
George W. Bush $247,100,000
2010 midterm elections fundraising
[The squares are divided in to one blue and one red block]
Democrats $815,000,000
Republicans $587,000,000
[The next section inside the gray frame is singled out in another black frame:]
2011-2012 Campaign donations by industry
[Below are six blocks. Each block is divided into blue and a red squares, and three of the blocks (the first two and the last) also has some light gray squares ordered in a line above the colored squares. Above the first group of blocks are written what each color means – gray, blue and red:]
(Other)
(To Democrats)
(To Republicans)
[Below each group is written the following:]
Finance industry $122,900,000
Organized labor $18,720,000
Energy industry $26,680,000
Lawyers and general lobbyists $57,590,000
Health industry $42,727,000
Electronics and communication industry $32,420,000
[For the last two groups of blocks the squares all have the normal gray color]
[The next section inside the gray frame is singled out in another black frame:]
Inaugurations
[Below are two groups of blocks. Each block is divided into two sections. These are designated on each side and below are the title of the blocks. The title first:]
Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration $174,100,000
Festivities (private donors) $46,400,000
Federal + state + local government (mainly security) $127,700,000
George Bush’s 2005 inauguration $178,600,000
Festivities (private donors) $47,800,000
Federal + state + local government (mainly security) $130,800,000
Past presidential campaign fundraising
[Below are six groups of gray blocks in two columns. The text are written down through each column:]
1996 $559,810,000
1992 $521,480,000
1988 $606,300,000
1984 $429,860,000
1980 $434,220,000
1976 $664,160,000

A billionaire[edit]

A billionaire $1,000,000,000
Darell Issa (R-CA) net worth $304,000,000
Jane Harman (D-CA) net worth $294,000,000
John Kerry (D-MA) net worth $239,000,000
Mitt Romney net worth $210,000,000
Jon Huntsmann net worth $40,000,000
Average net worth of US senator $13,400,000
Average net worth of US representative $4,900,000

Value of a solid gold toilet[edit]

Value of a solid gold toilet (626 lbs) by year
[Below is a bar chart with squares representing the value for each year. Below the chart is written the years:]
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Value of a carry-on suitcase full of $100 bills (30,00 ct, 60lbs)
[Below is a bar chart with squares representing the value for each year. Below the chart is written the years:]
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
[This next block has the bottom half in light gray squares, the rest is normal gray. Below is the title text, and left is the text representing the light gray squares. Title first:]
$1 per US resident $312,620,000
$1 per US household $117,290,000
Dubai Fountain $224,540,000
One F-22 raptor $154,500,000
One velociraptor $1,9300,000
(25% of Jurassic Park production budget amortized over three velociraptors)
[This next block has the left part in light gray squares, the rest is normal gray. Below is the title text, and below to the left is the text representing the light gray squares. Title first:]
$10 from every US resident $3,326,000,000
$10 from every US household $1,179,180,000

Professional rapper net worth[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light gray square with rounded corners]
Professional rapper net worth
50 Cent $100,000,000
[Next to 50 Cent is a black frame, that give the values with the green dollar squares:]
50 Cent (stage name) $0,50
50 Cent (adjusted for inflation) $0,70
Birdman $100,000,000
Dr Dre $125,000,000
Jay-Z $450,000,000
Diddy $475,000,000

J. K. Rowling[edit]

J. K. Rowling $1,000,000,000
[Next to Rowling is a black frame, that uses the orange Thousands squares. The frame is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown below and just to the right of Rowlings squares:]
J. K. Rowling has she become a rapper* $82,000
  • Professional assessment by rapper/geek culture expert MC Frontalot

Annual hurricane forecast R&D funding[edit]

Annual hurricane forecast R&D funding $20,000,000
Hurricane forecast improvement funding since 1989 $440,000,000
Economic savings-during Hurricane Irene alone- due to limiting evacuations made possible by recent forecast advances $700,000,000

Loss in NewsCorp value over hacking scandal[edit]

Loss in NewsCorp value over hacking scandal $750,000,000

Marginal cost to launch one shuttle[edit]

Marginal cost to launch one shuttle $450,000,000
Total shuttle program per launch $450,000,000
Burj Khalifa $1,5210,000,000
New Yankee Stadium $1,545,000,000
One B-2 bomber $2,500,000,000

Billions[edit]

Complete on 2014-06-24

[This section is to the right of the Dollars section and above both the Millions and Trillions section – This section is by far the largest. This section gets into larger scale finances, profits of various sectors, costs of natural disasters, and net worth of the richest people on the planet including Donald Trump.]
Billions
[The Millions section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at in the left part and at the bottom of the Billions section with lines indicating this zoom]
[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a billion dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number yellow squares equal to the number of billion dollars in the amount - so next to J. K. Rowling (1 billion dollars) there will be 1 square and next to the value of Facebook (70 billion dollars) there are 70 squares etc.]
[In this section the order of the items will be given in the three columns that are fairly clearly defined (i.e. not from top to bottom as a first rule - only within these three columns do this rule apply when possible.) The first column stops before the Economic vortex. And the second column stops at the Disaster section with Federal budget and war spendings as the other borders. Only the art and entertainment section breaches this line - but it belongs to the second column as it also belongs to the entire section below Federal spending. The rest belongs to the third column.]

Notes on terminology[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame right next to the Billions text.]
Notes on terminology:
In this chart, the word “typical” indicates a median value, while “average” indicates a mean.
When a source quotes a range of common values, their geometric mean is used.

One billion dollars[edit]

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 millions gray squares set to equal (=) one yellow square to indicate the size of a yellow square]
=
One billion dollars $1,000,000,000

Billionaires[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]
Billionaires
[There are seven sections singled out each in a separate black frames with white background. Between the three that are most to the left is a section that is singled out by a gray frame with rounded corners. The three surrounding white sections penetrates the gray area, so that five of the ten items are not written on the gray background, but on white background inside the black frames. The left most section surrounds the top two and the fifth item, the top right section includes the third item and the bottom right section includes tenth and last item. This transcript will write the ten items in the gray section first (also those on white background). Then it will take the three frames that penetrate the gray area – and not include those persons mentioned already, and finally the last four square frames that are to the far right in the yellow section. Below all of this is a final item which will be given at the end:]

[Inside the gray frame:]

The Ten Richest
Carlos Slim Helú and family $74,000,000,000
Bill Gates $56,000,000,000
Warren Buffett $50,000,000,000
Bernard Arnault $41,000,000,000
Larry Ellison $39,500,000,000
Lakshmi Mittal $31,100,000,000
Amancio Ortega $31,000,000,000
Eike Batista $30,000,000,000
Mukesh Ambani $27,000,000,000
Christiy Walton and family $26,5000,000,000
[The first black frame to the far left includes the 13 richest in this category. The two richest are included as the top two of the gray section, as is also the third richest who is number 5 on the top ten. These three will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 4-13 richest. The title is above the frame:]
The Ten Richest
Larry page $19,800,000,000
Sergey Brin $19,800,000,000
Jeff Bezon $18,000,000,000
Steve Ballmer $14,500,000,000
Mark Zuckerberg $13,500,000,000
Paul Allen $13,500,000,000
Steve Jobs (D) $8,300,000,000
Eric Schmidt $7,000,000,000
Sean Parker $1,600,000,000
Steve Case $1,300,000,000
[The second black frame right of the gray frame includes the 8 richest in this category. The richest are included as the third on the gray section. He will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 2-8 richest. The title is above the frame:]
Politicians and alleged evil plutocratic puppetmasters
Charles Koch $22,000,000,000
David Kock $22,000,000,000
[There is an error as 19 blocks not 18 is shown.]
Michael Bloomberg $18,100,000,000
George Soros $14,000,000,000
Silvio Berlusconi and family $7,800,000,000
Rupert Murdoch $7,600,000,000
[There is an error as only 4 blocks not 6 is shown.]
David Geffen $6,000,000,000
[The third black frame below the second frame includes the 4 richest in this category. The richest are included as the last and tenth on the gray section. She will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 2-4 richest. The title is above the frame:]
Walmart
Jim Walton $21,300,000,000
Alice Walton $21,200,000,000
S. Robson Walton $21,000,000,000
[The next four black frames is to the far right and do not have any one in the top 10. The title is above the frames:]
Fictional
(source: Forbes)
Carlisle Cullen $34,500,000,000
Scrooge McDuck $33,500,000,000
Bruce Wayne $6,500,000,000
Artemis Fowl $1,900,000,000
Fashion
Lilianne Bettencourt$23,500,000,000
Ralph Lauren $5,800,000,000
[There is an error as only 2 blocks not 3 is shown.]
Ronald Lauder $3,100,000,000
Art and media
George Lucas $3,200,000,000
Oprah Winfrey $3,200,000,000
[J. K. Rowling vs. rappers was also the subject of the Millions section]
Five wealthiest rappers combines $1,250,000,000
J. K. Rowling $1,000,000,000
Donald Trump
[There is an error as only 2 blocks not 3 is shown. Above for instance 1.9 billion is also shown with 2 blocks]
Donald Trump $2,700,000,000
[At the bottom is a large block of squares:]
Combines net worth of the world’s 1,210 billionaires $4,500,000,000,000

Harry Potter movie franchise[edit]

Harry Potter movie franchise total revenue $21,000,000,000
Treasure found in a temple in India 2011 $22,000,000,000

Box office revenue[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]
Box office revenue
Adjusted for monetary inflation but not ticket price inflation
[Highligted is misspelled in the comic:]
Hilighted: films which earned more than 2009’s Avatar
[Below is a bar chart that show the total box office revenue by year (for the US – not clear from the text, but it is US only). The years (starting at 2010) are shown down to the left, and the squares form a bar. Some movies (the box office record holder?) is mentioned, and it’s part of that years box office is shown by making the relevant part of the last squares in the bar become dark gray. These movies are mentioned by name, and from the name a line is marking which square/year they belong to. Those movies that have earned more than Avatar are highlighted in an even brighter yellow square. From about 1980 the data for total box office seems to disappear, the squares becoming brighter and brighter until in 1975 they are completely white, and in 1974 they are only white outlines of squares and then they are gone. However, the squares representing top box office movies still continue to be dark gray, and there continues to be box office hits mentioned all the way back to Snow White in 1937. First will be mentioned the given years from top to bottom – these are written just below the bigger five years markings (on the left), then a note written further left between the 1965 marking down to 1960, and finally all mentioned movies from top to bottom (these are on the right side of the bar chart)]
2010 2005 2000 1995 1990 1985 1980 1975 1970 1965 1960 1955 1950 1945 1940 1935
No annual box office data found
Avatar $783,510,000
The Dark Knight $547,520,000
Shrek 2 $516,610,000
The Phantom Menace $572,000,000
[The next is highlighted in yellow:]
Titanic $827,260,000
The Lion King $625,810,000
Jurassic Park $625,810,000
Ghostbusters $507,720,000
Return of the Jedi $686,710,000
[The next is highlighted in yellow:]
E.T. $996,580,000
The Empire Strikes Back $778,530,000
[The next five are highlighted in yellow:]
Star Wars $1,681,000,000
Jaws $1,067,510,000
The Exorcist $1,019,000,000
The Sound of Music $1,144,920,000
101 Dalmatians $1,131,310,000
[These two are not highlighted:]
Ben-Hur $561,090,000
The Ten Commandments $532,570,000
[The last four is highlighted in yellow:]
Bambi $1,391,000,000
Fantasia $1,146,000,000
Gone With the Wind $3,157,000,000
Snow White $2,841,700,000

Charity[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]
Charity
US annual charitable giving $294,850,000,000
[Below is two blocks of groups the first sorted by who the charity is given to. The squares of the first block are divided into 9 groups and each are named. The one named other is drawn in lighter colored squares]
To religious organizations $102,000,000,000
To foundations $33,450,000,000
To human services $26,850,000,000
To international affairs $15,980,000,000
To arts and culture $13,460,000,000
Other
To animals and environment $6,750,000,000
To educational organizations $42,240,000,000
To health organizations $23,140,000,000
To societal benefit organizations $24,570,000,000
Type of giving
[The bottom blocks are divided into 4 groups and each are named.]
Individual giving $214,650,000,000
Foundation grantmaking $41,500,000,000
Corporate giving $15,500,000,000
Bequests $23,140,000,000

Gates Foundation total giving since 1994[edit]

Gates Foundation total giving since 1994 $25,360,000,000
[The block of squares are divided in four, and each are labeled]
Global health
Grants
Development
US

Industry revenue[edit]

[There are two items next to each other singled out in separate black frames - both regarding industry revenue]
Book publishing industry revenue $28,320,000,000
[The block of squares are divided in five, and each are labeled]
Romance $1,380,000,000
Trade books $14,130,000,000
K-12 $5,570,000,000
Higher education $4,560,000,000
Professional $3,750,000,000
[Included in this frame is a small man with a red and white striped shirt, blue pants, a cane and a knit cap. He is known as Wally or Waldo (in the US) from the Where's Waldo books.]
Video game industry revenue $48,900,000,000
[The block of squares are divided in two, the smaller on the right are labeled]
United States $18,830,000,000

Education[edit]

[This section is complicated to define. First of all the title is written with a very large font below 5-6 groups of blocks. Some in black frames some not. Here are included everything beneath the two previous sections except the Foundations section which will follow below this one. The title will be written first, although at the very bottom, then the rest will be taken from the top]
Education
[The first items are singled out as it is in a frame below the industry revenue group.]
Harvard University
revenue
[The block of squares are divided in two and each are labeled]
Tuition, donations, and fees $1,425,000,000
Investments $7,900,000,000
[Below the block is written]
In other words, if Harvard completely eliminated tuition, it would mean roughly a 15% budget cut.
[The next tree items are not in a frame. The first are to the left (and below) the Harvard section, the other two are directly below that section. In all cases the title is below the block and this will be written first even though labeling text are written above]
[The first block of squares are divided in two and the top of the largest bottom group is drawn in a light yellow color. All three groupings are labeled. There is an error as the total of the two groups are 1 billion larger than the total written beneath the block. This also fits with the number of squares – there are 957 – matching the $956,800,000,000 by adding private and federal loans]
Student loans outstanding $955,800,000,000
Private $163,900,000,000
Federal $792,900,000,000
Defaulted federal loans $65,020,000,000
(Private total unknown)
[The next block of squares are divided in two, and the upper part is drawn in a light yellow color – this is labeled.]
Total spending on primary and secondary education in the US $612,470,000,000
Teacher salaries $295,810,000,000
[The last of the three blocks are not divided]
Total annual higher-education spending in the US $355,110,000,000
[The next item are singled out as it is in a frame – right above the huge Education heading at the bottom. The title is below the block, and the squares are divided in to 11 groups each are labeled. The center block is drawn in a light yellow color – it is the “other” section. After the title, the labels are written from top to bottom in three columns]
Endowments of the 63 wealthiest university $277,570,000,000
U. of Michigan $7,800,000,000
Columbia $7,800,000,000
Yale $19,400,000,000
Harvard $32,000,000,000
Texas A&M $7,030,000,000
The other 53
Northwestern $7,030,000,000
Stanford $16,500,000,000
MIT $9,900,000,000
U of Texas $16,610,000,000
Princeton $17,010,000,000

Foundations[edit]

[This section is next to the last frame from the Education section. The items are listed as a column:]
Gates Foundation $36,700,000,000
INGKA Foundation $36,000,000,000
Howard Hughes Medical Institute $14,800,000,000
Ford Foundation $13,800,000,000
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $6,100,000,000

Combined annual profit of the Fortune 500 companies[edit]

Combined annual profit of the Fortune 500 companies $708,600,000,000

Corporate revenue[edit]

[This section is a little complicated. The title is written above several groups of blocks - some in black frames some not. Here, however, are included all the blocks (frame or not) that includes the profit or loss squares. Each block of squares has either a section of the squares at the bottom left that are drawn in a dark gray color and are labeled profit or some of the squares in the top row of the block will be drawn in a lighter yellow color and are labeled loss.]
Corporate revenue
[First are included six items that are not in a frame – they start right below the heading. The profit squares are marked with a square label and a line goes to the top of the block where the label is. For loss the label is just written above the squares in brackets]
Walmart $421,800,000,000
$16,390,000,000 profit
ExxonMobil $354,700,000,000
$30,460,000 profit
Chevron $196,300,000,000
$19,020,000,000 profit
Fannie Mae $153,800,000,000
($14,010,000,000 loss)
GE $151,600,000,000
$11,640,000,000 profit
Berkshire Hathaway $136,100,000,000
$12,970,000,000 profit
[Then follows six groups of blocks that are singled out in separate frames – but there is no heading]
[Frame one at the top right of the heading - here the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]
PepsiCo $57,840,000,000
($6,320,000,000 profit)
Coca-Cola $35,840,000,000
($11,800,000,000 profit)
[Frame two to the right of the previous frame - here the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]
VIAS $8,100,000,000
($2,700,000,000 profit)
MasterCard $5,500,000,000
($1,850,000,000 profit)
[Frame three is below the first row of those blocks not in frames – to the right of the last two of those blocks. Here the profit/loss line is written as for those without frames]
General Motors $135,600,000,000
$6,170,000 profit
Ford $129,000,000,000
$6,560,000,000 profit
Chrysler $44,950,000,000
($653,000,000 loss)
[Frame four and five is below those blocks not in frames, to the left, one next to the other. Here the profit/loss line is written as for those without frames. First frame four:]
AT&T $124,600,000,000
$18,860,000 profit
Verizon $106,560,000,000
$2,550,000,000 profit
[Frame five]
Bank of America $134,200,000,000
($2,240,000,000 loss)
JP Morgan Chase $115,480,000,000
$17,370,000,000 profit
Citigroup $111,060,000,000
$10,600,000 profit
AIG $104,420,000,000
$7,790,000,000 profit
[The sixth and last frame is to the right of the two previous, below the third frame. The first item uses the square bracket to indicate profit on top of the block, the other three uses the format from the first frame where the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]
HP $126,000,000,000
$8,780,000,000 profit
Apple $65,230,000,000
($14,010,000,000 profit)
Microsoft $62,480,000,000
($18,760,000,000 profit)
Google $29,320,000,000
($8,510,000,000 profit)

Combined pay at Wall St. banks and securities firms[edit]

[These three items are below the fourth and fifth frame from the Corporation section. They are not directly related]
Combined pay at Wall St. banks and securities firms $135,000,000,000
Mobile computing annual sales $220,000,000,000
Online spending in 2009 $251,070,000,000

US spending on lung cancer treatment[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame – but there is no general heading. The items are directly related to the US health care spending below, and is somewhat related to the NCAA budget to the right.]
US spending on lung cancer treatment $11,310,000,000
US spending on tobacco marketing $13,600,000,000
US spending on all cancer treatment $106,870,000,000
US spending on cigarettes $91,660,000,000

NCAA budget[edit]

NCAA budget $5,640,000,000

US health care spending[edit]

US health care spending (2005 data) $2,106,000,000,000
[The block is split in two groups with their separate headings below. The top and bottom are in normal yellow colored squares, but in between, towards the bottom, is a section of squares drawn in a lighter yellow color. Each of the three section thus created are labeled, with one label at the top, and two labels on each side – the labels will be given from top to bottom for each group]
[There is two errors in the first group. The sum of the three sections give $1,147,160,000,000, and the division between the bottom yellow and the light yellow is at the wrong place (the top part is correct). There are 111 squares (not 79) in the bottom section and thus only 250 (not 282) in the light yellow section]
Private $1,147,050,000,000
Private insurance $785,900,000,000
Out-of-pocket $282,260,000,000
Other $79,000,000,000
[There is also an error in the second group. The sum of the three sections only give $958,050,000,000. The total amount of block (in both groups) is correct, but there are 388 (not 387) in the top section]
Government $958,950,000,000
Medicare $387,070,000,000
Medicaid $351,980,000,000
Other $219,000,000,000

Total annual tax breaks to the five largest oil companies[edit]

[These items are listed in a column directly below the sixth frame from the Corporation section.]
Total annual tax breaks to the five largest oil companies $2,100,000,000
US annual oil and gas subsidies $41,000,000,000
Ethanol subsidies $5,000,000,000
Combined annual profits of the five largest oil companies $36,000,000,000
Combined annual profits of the ten largest health insurance companies $12,870,000,000
2010 lobbying $3,560,000,000
2005 lobbying $2,750,000,000
2000 lobbying $2,000,000,000
One B-2 bomber $2,100,000,000
[The B-2 bomber was also mentioned in the Millions panel]

Corporations[edit]

[This is the start of the second of the three large columns in the Billions section]
Corporations
by market capitalization
(combined value of all stock)
[There are 16 blocks, the five smallest is located at the top to the right, their titles are to the left of the blocks, these will be listed first as the order here goes from top to bottom. Then follows two rows of five blocks, and finally the by far largest block to the left will be listed, as it’s title is below the block (as for the other ten) and thus also the lowest in this group.]
Facebook 2011 valuation $70,000,000,000
LivingSocial 2011 valuation $2,980,000,000
AT&T attempted T-Mobile purchase $39,000,000,000
Zynga 2011 valuation $14,000,000,000
Facebook 2010 valuation $33,450,000,000
Apple $358,310,000,000
ExxonMobil $357,910,000,000
PetroChina $280,160,000,000
IBM $211,640,000,000
Microsoft $211,340,000,000
Bank of China $208,810,000,000
Chine Mobile $201,510,000,000
Royal Dutch Shell $199,780,000,000
Nestlé $193,700,000,000
Chevron $188,030,000,000
Saudi Aramaco (State-owned company – estimated market value) $2,940,000,000,000

Cost to buy the world a coke[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame – but there are no general heading. It is at the top to the right of Corporations]
Cost to but the world a coke (2011 wholesale prices) $2,240,000,000
Coca-Cola’s annual marketing budget $2,980,000,000
Cost to teach the world to sing (four half-hour lessons at $30 each) $840,000,000,000

Foreign aid[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners– but there is no general heading. It is at the top to the right of the buy a coke section]
[The squares of the first block is divided in to four groups each of which are labeled. There is a cut and paste error, where the largest amount from the first group is reused on the smallest Other block. Also two of these groups use half a square (the two first of the three bottom groups). If the three numbers that are not clearly wrong are correct, then the last Other should be $1,480,000,000 (rather than $5.8 billion) and should have taken up 1.5 block (like the $1.3 billion does) rather than just one!]
US foreign military aid $11,010,000,000
Afghanistan $5,800,000,000
Israel $2,410,000,000
Egypt $1,320,000,000
Other $5,800,000,000
[The squares of the second block is divided in to four groups each of which are labeled. When summing up the four amounts $10,000,000 is missing]
US foreign humanitarian and economic aid $34,410,000,000
Iraq and Afghanistan $5,370,000,000
West Bank and Gaza $1,050,000,000
Africa (total) $8,850,000,000
Other $19,130,000,000

Ft. Knox gold reserves[edit]

[These items are listed to the right of the Foreign aid section – they are not directly related]
Ft. Knox gold reserves (November 2011 prices) $245,900,000,000
Unclaimed US treasury bonds $16,000,000,000
All the tea in China $4,210,000,000

State government spending[edit]

State government spending
[At the top right of the title there is a block of dark gray squares with a label, and under the title there is a legend next to a single dark gray square]
Total US states’ debt $46,000,000,000
shortfall
[The rest of the blocks are divided up into 50 groups each representing one of the 50 states. If the state have any debt this is represented by dark gray squares instead on only yellow squares. The groups are loosely shaped like the states they represents (when there are enough squares to make this possible) and then they are placed as close as possible to the position they would have according to the other states, but with plenty of space surrounding each group, forming a deform but recognizable shape of the US, with even Alaska in about the correct place. Only Hawaii has been moved closer (as it normally is on maps of the US states). Next to each state are written the official two letter abbreviations. Here these are listed in the columns the states abbreviations arrives through this jigsaw puzzle]
AK WA OR CA HI ID NV AZ MT UT NM WY CO ND SD NE KS OK TX MN IA MO AR LA IL MS WI IN AL MI OH KY TN GA WV FL PA VA SC NC NY MD DE VT NJ NH CT ME MA RI
[Below the map arrives the tip of a gray arrow which comes up from State tax group in the US household income section]

Corporate tax deduction[edit]

[This item are to the right of the top of the US map from state spendings. The squares are divided in to 7 groups. The title (written first) is below the block. Above is a note written in a light gray font. One of the groups are belongs to other tax deductions. This is written below the block, the other groups are named from left to right, with the first and last in line with the block, the rest written above. Here the items will be named in the order their group of squares appear from left to right – no matter where the text is written. There is a small error so there are 25 squares for the 24.43 billion and then only 41 squares for the 47.74 billion that are left for others. That last square should have been in the other group.]
Corporate tax deduction $125,180,000,000
(Note: Some of the corporate deductions are very technical, and even with the help of an accountant, I had trouble making sense of them. The text below is my best attempt at an English interpretation of the legalese.)
Reduced tax on first $10 million of corporate income $3,240,000,000
Delay of taxes on ‘income’ made from defaulting on a debt (Temporary stimulus measure) $21,390,000,000
Temporary change to equipment depreciation rules allowing more (and sooner) deductions for the purchase of new equipment $24,430,000,000
Other
Clean energy, space, science, and tech R&D $13,900,000,000
Miscellaneous rules for international corporate finance $6,800,000,000
Foreign corporation income financing rules $13,680,000,000

Individual tax deductions[edit]

[This item are right below the Corporate tax deduction. The squares are divided in to 29 groups and each are labeled. The title (written first) is below the block. Below the title is a note written in a light gray font (this text will follow after the title). One of the groups belongs to other tax deductions – the squares of this group are drawn in a light yellow color. Most of the groups are labeled by having a square bracket single the group out and a line from the bracket goes to the label. In cases where the label can be written so close to the squares that there can be no doubt where it belongs there is no bracket. There is no easy way to decide which order to transcript these items. Here below they will be listed clockwise starting from the Employee fringe benefits in the top right corner, and thus finish with the Other group.]
Individual tax deductions $964,970,000,000
These are types of income, or uses of income, which the government has partly or fully exempted from tax, often to encourage some activity. This can be thought of as ‘spent’ tax revenue, although it’s not quite that simple; there’s no guarantee removing the deduction would add that amount to revenue, because the presence of the deduction may be affecting taxpayer’s spending habits.
Employee fringe benefits $6,690,000,000
Scholarships $2,130,000,000
Property taxes $15,710,000,000
Employer-provided transportation $3,850,000,000
Retirement accounts $24,630,000,000
Cafeteria plans $26,760,000,000
State and local bonds $19,560,000,000
Company daycare $3,140,000,000
College and university credits $12,060,000,000
Mortgage interest $92,040,000,000
Medicare benefits $55,850,000,000
Child care $55,850,000,000
Employer health plans $107,140,000,000
Making Work Pay (ending) $60,510,000,000
First-time homebuyer credit $8,820,000,000
Military benefits $5,880,000,000
Veterans’ benefits $5,570,000,000
Life insurance benefits $25,750,000,000
Capital gains death exclusion $25,750,000,000
Social security and railroad retirement $27,170,000,000
Home sale capital gains $15,200,000,000
Small business health insurance $1,620,000,000
Federal employee expenses abroad $7,910,000,000
EITC (anti-poverty low-income tax credit) $78,760,000,000
Donations to charity $39,130,000,000
Capital gains (investment income) $78,760,000,000
Pension contributions $84,940,000,000
State and local tax $31,120,000,000
Other $64,970,000,000
[There are several mistakes in the above blocks group sizes and in at least one number. The EITC number is the same as that for the Capital gains, but there are only 57 squares for EITC not the 79 expected as for CG It looks like a cut and paste error. There are two other cases where two numbers next to each other are the same: Medicare & Child care and Life insurance & Capital gains. But maybe Randall had put those next to each other for that reason? The number of blocks is correct for the three of them and there is only missing one block for Medicare (55 instead of 56). Summing up all the numbers shows that the total (987.27 billion) is 22.3 billion dollars too large. This would be corrected if the EITC was 56.46 billion dollars – which should then only have given 56 not 57 blocks. But this shows that this could possibly have been the only wrong number? On the other hand there are six other places where the number of squares does not match the number of billions. The four of them are only one square – in all cases one too little. One has just been mentioned above – the other three are Retirement accounts (24 not 25), Cafeteria plans (26 not 27) and State and local bonds (19 not 25). The last two lies next to each other and one has three too many the other three too few. So this is probably a case of moving three squares to the wrong group. It is Employer health plans (104 not 107) and Making Work Pay (64 not 61). As the total number of squares sum up to the correct number (965), the four with one square to little, is probably just a decision made as there were too many groups that needed to be rounded up, and no half squares are used in this block! But the two with three squares is a mistake.]

US household income[edit]

[This section, located right below the Corporations, can be considered to be the centerpiece of the entire comic. It is also by far the most complicated single block with descriptions all the way around. The block is divided into five equally large rows. And then these are again divided into three groups, not equally this time. Among these fifteen groups are the five groups in the second “column” collected together in a gray shade that at the top turns into an arrow that show that this is State taxes and the arrow point to the US jigsaw map of State government spending. The last five groups in the third “column” are also collected together in a gray shade (clearly separate from the State tax gray shade, but right next to it). At the top of this shade it is clear that this is the Federal taxes. The shade has five arrows coming out like fingers near the shade and then turning in to arrow heads that all have moved (mainly down) to the part of the Federal spending block to the right that are called Taxes raised. Furthermore the entire block of squares – are again divided by four black frames where the second are larger than and encompasses the first, and so on up to the fourth. The fourth do not contain the entire block! Only those squares outside all four frames are the normal yellow color, the other squares are drawn in a lighter yellow color, except for those in the smalles frame – these squares are drawn in a gray/yellow color. There are explanations over each of the three columns (one of them being part of the title), explanation to the left next to each of the five rows, and explanations below and to the left of the four black frames. Finally there is a note on methodology. The transcript below will write the text in this order. First the top from left to right, and then down along the left side, then along the bottom, and up the right side. Finally the note will be taken last, although it is between two of the explanations for the frames!]
US household income $10,520,910,000,000
This section shows the money made every year in the US, broken into five pools of about $2 trillion each. The pools are sorted by income level–the top $2 trillion is made by a small number of wealthy households (the “one percent”), while the bottom $2 trillion represents the combined annual income of the poorer half of the country.
[The note here below is written in a very small font]
Note: Figures are only estimates–these statistics were computed using data from Congressional Budget Office analysis of 2007 incomes, and have been subject to the normalizations detailed below.
State taxes
Unlike federal taxes, state taxes are regressive–the poor pay a higher percentage of their income than the rich. This is because sales taxes, a large component of state revenues, fall disproportionately on the poor.
$642,030,000,000
Federal taxes
effective total federal taxes paid after deductions and tax credits
$2,192,180,000,000
[In the next part, down along the left part of the block, small yellow houses with a blue door and red roof with a chimney indicate one million households. Only for the first of the five rows is there need for less than a full million (1,6) and in this case the second faded out house should indicate a part of a million. They should represent 1,6 house, but looks more like 1,3 (the 1.6 million households equals 1.3% of the population...?) For the other four the numbers of households are only given in millions and there are one house pr. million except for an error in the bottom 50% where there are only drawn 61 houses to represent 63 million households. The question is if it is the 61 that is the correct amount. It seems easier to make all four percentages above the bottom one fit if there should be only 61 million in that group. The 116,6 drawn houses (instead of 118,6 form the numbers) also seems to fit with the 117 million dollars it would give if you had one dollar from every US household (in the Millions section). On the other hand Randall disagrees with himself in the Millions section as there are 118 million households in the 10 dollar from every US household block…? From top to bottom:]
Who makes this money?
Note: the income ranges here are only rough estimates–see below.
The 1%
This pool of income is split among 1.6 million households (1.3%)
Households in this group typically earns $400,000/year or more
[Below the text about yearly salary is the small houses located for each of the five groups.]
High incomes
This pool of income is split among 9 million households (8%)
Households in this group typically earn between $150,000 and $400,000/year
Upper incomes
This pool of income is split among 18 million households (16%)
Households in this group typically earn between $90,000 and $150,000/year
Upper middle incomes
This pool of income is split among 27 million households (23%)
Households in this group typically earn between $55,000 and $90,000/year
The bottom 50%
This pool of income is split among 63 million households (roughly the poorer half)
Households in this group typically earn less than $55,000/year
[Now follows the explanations on the four black frames that each take up an uneven amount from each row. From the explanation text goes a black line into the relevant frame. Starting with the smallest frame – with gray/yellow squares with text below the block, and then taking the other three in size up till the largest, these have the text to the right, and are listed from bottom and up:]
Required for poverty-line income
This is the amount which must be set aside from each pool in order to leave $22,350–roughly a poverty-line income–for each family in that pool.
If taxes cut into this region, then it forces the average after-tax income for the pool below the $22,350. (Of course, many families in this group makes less than that already.)
Required for a middle class income
This is the amount which must be set aside from each pool in order to leave $44,700–roughly double the poverty-line income–for each family in that pool.
If taxes cut into this region, then it forces the average after-tax income for the pool below that line. In the bottom quintile, the average income is already below this so the entire pool is marked off.
Amount needed to give everyone an income over $100,000
Amount which must be left in the pool to keep the average income above $100,000 (See descriptions below for details)
Amount needed to give everyone an income over $250,000
Amount which must be left in the pool to keep the average income above $250,000 (See descriptions below for details)
[Finally the note:]
Note on methodology: these totals were calculated from an analysis of the 2007 CBO report on effective federal tax rates by income. There were some mismatches between figures on total income from various sources, and between CBO tax rates and federal revenue. The income totals here were adjusted for inflation and then scaled slightly to match federal tax revenue. This should only affect the total reported income, and not the distribution of the tax burden or the rough makeup of the quintiles.

Federal spending[edit]

Federal spending
[This high block is to the right of the US household income block and of course to the left of the Federal Budget block. It is divided in three groups. The bottom group has five arrows pointing at it from the household block – the Federal taxes. The two other groups are drawn in light yellow squares. The middle part is much smaller than the two other. They are all labeled. As the middle part is label is to the right - the others to the left, this smaller part will be mentioned last. The others from the top down.]
Annual deficit $1,394,530,000,000
Taxes raised $2,192,180,000,000
Additional receipts $83,230,000,000
[Below the block are two arrows pointing down towards the complex compound of blocks that are part of the US GDP section. In particular they seem to point toward Health and education and Other services. But this could be a coincidence. The sum total of the three groups is $3,669,940,000,000 which is only $592,830,000 larger than the sum of the total in the Federal Budget: $3,670,532,830,000]

The Economic Vortex[edit]

[This special item is below and to the left of Household income, to the right of the corporate revenue and just above and to the left the US GDP section. Two large gray arrows are forming roughly half circles, the one within the other. The inner arrow is pointing clockwise, the other arrow anticlockwise. Both arrows finish at the top. There are also three smaller gray lines following the curves of the other two, one within the inner arrow and two on the outside. This forms the vortex of the title of this item. The title is written in the middle of this vortex. The text below is written over the gray arrows, the last line below the vortex.]
The Economic Vortex
All this money flows in and out of, and between, households, corporation and governments.
This process is complicated.

US annual corporate R&D[edit]

[This block is right below the Economic Vortex. It is split in four groups. Only the three small at the top is labeled. There is a small error as there are a total of 335 blocks instead of 334. The labels are named from left to right.]
Information technology $46,560,000,000
Scientific, technical, or provisional service $31,060,000,000
Other $20,710,000,000

US GDP[edit]

[This is one of the most complicated blocks in the comic to get an overview of!]
US GDP
Combined economic value of all goods and services produced in a year
$14,545,950,000,000
[This title stands below a huge section of blocks, which are not framed in, but it is fairly clear which belongs to the section. It is right below the US household income block. It is divided in 17 groups which are all labeled. Most of them have been divided into smaller segments. These are also all labeled. The groups are divided into columns. The first four with two groups in each, then in the fifth there are three groups in the “upper” part of the column – one is located in the middle of the column – four in total. The sixth column is a narrow half column. This also has two groups, but the second group is only half way down. The last and seventh column has three groups. The titles of the left groups are to the left – at the top of each group. The rest of the groups at the top or bottom have their title at the top or bottom respectively – sometimes floating quite a distance away from their group due to the segment labels. Those that are located in the middle has their labels below in the first, above in the second and to the right in the outer case. For those two in the middle of the block the title is written smaller – same size as the segmentation labels. For the rest the titles are written in a much larger font than the other labels. In two cases a square bracket with a line up to a label has been used to mark a segment. Else the label is written close to the segment. (Except for a case where this may have been forgotten – see below under Agriculture). There are several errors; these will be mentioned after each group is finished. Here should though be mentioned that the sum total of all the groups is 50 billion dollars to high. This is due to two mistakes in group headings; one where two ciphers have been changed and another where a 3 has been turned into an 8. However, the total number of blocks is 7 to high, but this seems to be a mistake, so there is good reason to believe there is no error in total for US GDP. There is a general error that should be mentioned here, which is that the sums of the segments almost never add up to the sum total of the groups. But most often it is an error of about 0.1 billion, except from four clear errors which will be mentioned in the transcript below – however, what happened with those last $100,000,000 is hard to guess... The groups (with their segment and then errors) will be listed from top to bottom in the seven columns mentioned:]
Durable goods $898,420,000,000
[The first groups segments are also split in 11 segments which are sorted in two columns. Here they are listed top to bottom as their segment appears in the group. The second to last is one of those marked by a square bracket. The label actually stands above the segment just above it. But it will, as stated, be mentioned second to last.]
Electrical equipment and components $53,260,000,000
Miscellaneous $81,390,000,000
Metals $44,710,000,000
Mineral products $39,600,000,000
Motor vehicles, trailers and parts $80,560,000,000
Other transportation equipment $93,440,000,000
Furniture $24,930,000,000
Wood products $21,530,000,000
Computer and electronics $212,640,000,000
Metal products $125,590,000,000
Machinery $116,110,000,000
[This is one of the errors in the title – is should have been 893 instead of 898. Then it fits both with the squares and the individual sum of the segments – a typical mistake to misread a 3 into an 8. All segments fit with their squares (Wood products had to be rounded down to 21 squares rather than 22 to make it fit).]
Nondurable goods $739,300,000,000
[The second groups eight segments are also sorted in two columns and listed top to bottom as their segment appears in the group.]
Printing and related supports $33,790,000,000
Textile mills $18,130,000,000
Plastic rubber products $58,410,000,000
Paper products $57,800,000,000
Apparel $12,050,000,000
Petroleum and coal $123,630,000,000
Food, beverage, and tobacco $212,330,000,000
Chemicals $223,050,000,000
[The total number of squares in the group fits, but there are three segment mistakes – one of them the worst percent wise as there are only 12 not 18 squares in the Textile mills. Those missing six squares are divided with four to Paper product (62 not 58) and two to Apparel (14 not 12).]
Finance and insurance $1,207,030,000,000
[The third group is split in four segments and they are listed top first then bottom.]
Funds and trusts $59,550,000,000
Investments $180,500,000,000
Insurance $437,340,000,000
Federal Reserve banks and credit intermediaries $529,540,000,000
[No errors as such, but to make it fit Investments had to be rounded down to 180 squares.]
Real estate $1,925,210,000,000
[The fourth group are split in two segment which are listed top first then bottom.]
Rental and leasing $187,610,000,000
Non-rental real estate $1,737,500,000,000
[Errors in both segments with the first rounded down to 187 squares but the other has 1740 rather than 1738 squares for a total of two squares too much in this group.]
Professional and business services $1,752,750,000,000
[The fifth groups five segments are listed top first then bottom. The second to last is one of those marked by a square bracket. The label actually stands below and to the far right, but it will still be mentioned second to last.]
Waste management $39,870,000,000
Administrative and support services $358,110,000,000
Legal services $225,830,000,000
Computer design and service $174,730,000,000
Corporate management $253,950,000,000
Other professional or technical services $700,250,000,000
[There is one mistake as there are 705 squares (not 700) in the bottom segment and thus five too many in the group. Together with the two from Real estate this could explain the 7 too much in total.]
Government $1,980,640,000,000
[The sixth group has no segments or errors]
Health and education $1,294,580,000,000
[The seventh group is split in four segments. The first three belongs to health only and has the labels above and below the three segments. Down below the label for the third bottom segment, is yet another segment which is for education only. This is the only case where a groups segments are divided by text and extra space. It seems like the education segment is drawn like it belong to the Retail trade below. But as the squares and segment values fit together with the corrected total (see errors bellow) then it is clear that the Educational service block has floated too far away. This may be a mistake in itself? Special for this group is that the tip of one of the two gray arrows, that goes from the Federal spending section right above, points directly at this groups heading. If this is intentionally...?]
Social assistance $93,750,000,000
Ambulatory health care services $529,750,000,000
Hospitals $466,390,000,000
Educational service $159,580,000,000
[This is where the main error occurs. It is a cipher error where the 4 and the 9 have been switched in the title value, which should have been 1249.58 billion dollars instead of 1294.58 billion dollars. The four segments values match their squares down to half a square (first time half squares has been used in this block) for the two segments in the middle and they sum up to 1249.47 billion, which is “only” 0.11 billion from the “corrected” value. And with this change and the 8 to 3 error mentioned in the first group, the sum total of all the groups adds up to the value given in the block title!]
Retail trade $844,380,000,000
[The eight group has no segments but in spite of using a half square it actually has one square too much (845.5 not 844.5)]
[Group 9 to 12 have no segments, and they are in the same column with the two first next to each other and their titles at the top. The third of these (group 11) is the first with the title in the middle of the big block of squares. This title is written below the group it belongs to, with the same font size as the segments, but for the overview, it will still be written in bold here. Below the third is some text that belongs to the next half column and also text that belongs to the last column. This can make it difficult to be certain which text belongs where. Group 12 is at the bottom. Special for group 10 Other Services is that the tip of one of the two gray arrows, that goes from the Federal spending section right above, points directly at this groups heading. If this is intentionally...?]
Utilities $276,210,000,000
Other Services $345,540,000,000
Construction $553,750,000,000
Wholesale trade $804,410,000,000
[Only error is that the 12th group in spite of using a half square actually has one square too little (803.5 not 804.5) so this goes out with the other half square block error from the block next to it to the left Retail trade]
Mining $248,080,000,000
[The 13th group is split in three and the labels are listed top first then bottom. It is the upper part of the slim half column.]
Mining (other than oil and gas) $50,380,000,000
Mining support $51,270,000,000
Oil and gas $145,990,000,000
[No errors as such, but to make it fit Mining support had to be rounded up to 52 squares.]
Agriculture $137,120,000,000
[The 14th group is the second in the slim half column and also the second with the title in the middle of the big block of squares. This title is written above the group it belongs to with the same font size as the segments, but for the overview, it will still be written in bold here. The two segment titles are both below the group, but as the smaller group is at the top, there should have been a square bracket and a line down to the second segments label, to make it clear where this label belonged to. There seem to have been some trouble keeping the focus/overview in this crowded area when Randall drew it?]
Farms $107,140,000,000
Forestry, fishing, and related $30,080,000,000
[No errors, except the possible forgotten bracket mentioned above.]
Arts and entertainment $528,620,000,000

[The 15th group at the top right of the block is divided in four segments. As it is on the outside of the block, the segments labels for the three last segments are written to the right. Due to the crowded text labels at the top of the group it can be confusing where that the first segment belongs to this group – it could have been a group to itself like Construction. But it can be calculated that it belongs here:]

Food service $285,480,000,000
Performing arts, sports, and museums $73,040,000,000
Amusements, gambling, and general recreation $73,040,000,000
Accomodation $111,990,000,000
[Accommodation is misspelled in the comic. Other errors include one of the big copy paste errors, where the amount from Performing… has been pasted down to Amusements… The correct value calculated from the total should have been 58.11 billion dollars and there is also 58 squares in the segment. This error of about 15 billion dollars does not have any influence on the total of the entire block, as the group total is correct. Finally also half a block has been used for Food service but again there is an error as there is one square too little (284.5 not 285.5).]
Information $658,630,000,000

[The 16th group is divided into four segments. It is in the middle but as it is to the far right of the block the title is written to the right in the normal large font, between the first and second segments titles. The three first mentioned segments are those to the right, with their text also to the right of the block. The fourth segment takes up the entire left of this group, but the text is written further below than normal and too far right under the segments to the right. It seems it has been placed a bit too far down and right, so it begins to mingle with the text from the groups to the left and below, exactly here in the most crowded and most difficult to overview corner of the entire block. As there is missing a square bracket from the segment title Forestry, fishing and related up to its group Agriculture (see that group) it can be hard to see that it is not this label that belongs to the fourth segment. But again it can be calculated that it is Broadcasting...]

Information and data processing $78,300,000,000
Publishing (including software) $152,170,000,000
Film video, and sound recording $61,610,000,000
Broadcasting and telecommunications $366,560,000,000
[Here are errors in the number of squares in the first three segments with 77 not 78 in the first, 142 not 152 in the second and 74 not 62 squares in the last segment. So the 11 squares too little in the first two is matched by 12 too much in the last for a total of one square too much in total. The last segment uses a half square, but this time gets the correct number anyway.]
Transportation and storage $401,280,000,000
[The 17th and last group at the bottom right is divided into eight segments. The top of this group is at the most crowded and difficult to overview corner of the block. As an example the two segment labels standing right above this group do not belong to it. As has been described in Agriculture and Information, these two titles belong to these groups instead, but are missing either a bracket or have been misplaced. The segment label that belongs to the top segment, is placed to the left of this segment above the Wholesale trade group. It is written with the normal segment font, but as all the other segments labels of the group is not only placed to the right of the segments (and the entire block), they are also (by mistake) written with a much smaller font. On top of this something that seems to be the title for the group is written next to the top segment at the other (right) side. This is where it would have made sense to place the segment title, now that the actual group title is placed below the block. But at some point the group title was probably supposed to be there at the right side, just as the title for the above middle group Information has it's group title to the right. Then when this was changed, only the last part of the title was deleted, but this half title without an amount was left behind. So this must also count as a mistake. All this gives the impression that the label with the first segments title do not even belong to this segment/group, but should rather belong to a (non-existing) extra segment of the Wholesale trade group (where there are no segments). The labels as well as the "extra" title will be listed below in the order it would be included if it was all segment titles, that is the extra title will be listed after the first and before the second segment title and as it is written with the large group title font, it will be written in bold:]
Warehousing and storage $40,590,000,000
Transportation
Water $14,730,000,000
Air $36,770,000,000
Rail $31,730,000,000
Truck $116,520,000,000
Transit and land passenger $24,110,000,000
Pipeline $12,360,000,000
Other transport $97,560,000,000
[Apart from the extra part of a title text; other errors include one more incidence where two ciphers have been changed, as the 6 should have been before 3 in 36,77 billions so it would have been 63,77 for the Air segment - which also has 64 squares. With this value the sum total of the segments matches the group total. This error of about 27 billion dollars does not have any influence on the total of the entire block, as the group total is correct. Finally there are also an error in the number of squares as there are 22 not 24 blocks in Transit…, but as Truck has been rounded down to 116 (not up to 117) this only amount to one square too little in total. This matches the one to much from the previous group, so only the 2 and 5 extra squares from the fourth and fifth group are not countered by other mistakes and this gives the 7 extra squares compared to the expected number of squares from the blocks total.]

Disasters[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]
Disasters
Estimated total damage
[There are eight blocks in this sections, and then an under section in the right part singled out in a separate black frame. (This frame will be covered below.) The blocks are to the left (the first is so long it goes in over the black frame). They are listed one above the other, with the title to the far left, except for the fifth “row” where there are two hurricanes listdn on the same level. The title of the second block is also to the left of this block. They will be listed top to bottom.]
Japan 2011 earthquake reconstruction and recovery cost, World Bank estimate $235,000,000,000
Hurricane Katrina $107,440,000,000
1988 US drought $78,060,000,000
1980 US drought $60,740,000,000
Hurricane Andrew $46,180,000,000
Hurricane Irene (estimated) $107,440,000,000
9/11 insured losses $40,550,000,000
Hurricane Ike $28,170,000,000
[Next to Hurricane Ike are the following text, that refers to the 41 light yellow squares, that double the number of squares for the 9/11 block:]
For hurricanes, the rule of thumb is that total losses are roughly double insured losses. It is unclear if a similar rule exists for terrorism.
[The next items are singled out as they are inside a black frame, inside the yellow frame.]
Hypothetical disasters
Estimated total losses if the disaster happened today
(based on insurance industry modeling)
[There are also eight blocks in this section, the first four are listed with one on each row, then there are two for each of the last two rows. The titles of all items are listed to their left. They will be listed top to bottom.]
1938 Long Island Express if it had curbed left and made landfall in New Jersey instead of Long Island $236,960,000,000
1812 New Madrid, Missouri earthquake $206,050,000,000
1926 Miami hurricane $202,000,000,000
1906 San Francisco earthquake $197,810,000,000
1900 Galveston hurricane $82,420,000,000
Charleston, SC quake of 1886 $76,240,000,000
Long Island Express (1938 New England Hurricane) $78,060,000,000
1989 Prieta earthquake $12,360,000,000

Cost of electricity[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]
Cost of electricity
Price of enough electricity to power all US homes for one year, by plant type
[There are 11 blocks in this sections, and then an under section in the right part singled out in a separate black frame. (This frame will be covered below.) The blocks are to the left. The second has a “special” light yellow section that goes above the black frame, and has some extra text to explain these. The last three is so also in themselves so long they go under the black frame. They are listed one above the other, with the title to the far left. Two have text to their right. One of these goes into the black frame which belongs to that block. They will be listed top to bottom, with the extra info given as it comes.]
Advances combined cycle natural gas $78,100,000,000
Conventional coal $117,340,000,000
[After the 117 squares are four more segments of squares that belongs to the coal block. Above these extra blocks, are written:]
External societal costs from use of that amount of coal power $226,690,000,000
Harvard Medical School analysis. Range of possible values was $119b to $342b. Most of the uncertainty was due to potentially lower costs from air pollution or higher ones from climate change.
[Above the three first light yellow segments, are a square bracket with the label above. The fourth segment (of only four square) have the square bracket below and a small bend line going to the label]
Public health burden in Appalacia $55,400,000,000
Air pollution from power plants $118,300,000,000
Climate impact $40,030,000,000
Additional costs
[Errors in the above. There are 60 not 55 squares in the Appalacia block and 123 not 118 squares in the Air pollution block. The numbers above add up to $217.3b not 226.69. But with 60 and 123 squares total ends up on the 227 blocks that would fit the total. The total of all the squares are 344 which is close to the maximum value from the Harvard text. However, this may have only been referring to the light yellow extra terms. It seems that either the Appalacia and pollution numbers are wrong (both squares and total points to this), or the total and square numbers are wrong.]
Advanced coal with carbon capture $168,590,000,000
Biomass $139,250,000,000
[The following text stands to the right of the block:]
Estimated of climate impact vary wildly. Consensus seems to be more than nothing but less than coal.
Geothermal $125,880,000,000
Advanced nuclear $140,980,000,000
[The following text that penetrates the black frame stands to the right of the block:]
Little impact on climate/air, but hard to find assessments of meltdown and fuel storage costs/risks. Some past cost shown for perspective.
[The black frame belongs to this block, but will be listed below the other items on the current list]
Hydroelectric $106,940,000,000
Wind $120,070,000,000
Offshore wind $301,030,000,000
Solar (photovoltaic) $260,800,000,000
Solar (thermal) $385,940,000,000
[The next items are singled out as they are inside a black frame, inside the yellow frame. They belong to the Advanced nuclear block and the text right of this even penetrates into this frame. See above.]
Nuclear accidents
[There are four blocks in this section, there are two on the first two row, then one on the next two rows. The titles of all items are listed below them. They will be listed top to bottom.]
Fukushima meltdown estimated total cost to Japan $131,100,000,000
Fukushima cost from 300 extra cancer deaths (EPA conversion) $2,570,000,000
(Compare to $128,590,000,000 for deaths from quake/tsunami)
Belarus estimated 30-year costs from Chernobyl $282,350,000,000
Cost of estimated 42,457 Chernobyl deaths (EPA method) $344,750,000,000

Federal budget[edit]

Federal budget
[This very complicated block is located beneath Disasters and (of course) to the right of Federal spending. Here it is shown what the 3670 billion dollars from the spending block is used to in the budget. One reason it is so complex, is that the top 10 segments each are singled out in their own gray frame, but the eight below these not are singled out like this. Also where the total for each of the bottom groups are given as well as the individual segments in each group, then it is only the segments total that is given for those in gray frames. That it all belongs together can though be verified by calculation as the sum total of both those in the gray frames as well as the rest reaches the same 3670 billion dollars from the spending block. More precisely the sum here is $3,670,532,830,000 (there are though only 3669,5 squares - one too few) and this amount is only $592,830,000 larger than the sum of the three segments of the spending block: $3,669,940,000,000.]
[The first ten groups, that are singled out in individual gray frames, will be listed in this order - first the column, and then the two rows. The title is not always at the top, but it will always be mentioned first. Each group is divided in segments. The labels for each segment will always be given from top to bottom (only slight deviation is for Energy where the two rows will be taken from left, which would not give the exact same order). After each frames transcript there will be a note on layout and possible errors, as well as the sum total (which is not given in the transcript).]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
General/Legislative
Fiscal assistance $5,150,000,000
Policy and regulation $629,460,000
Property and records $1,550,000,000
Legislative $4,140,000,000
Fiscal operations $12,070,000,000
Management $535,000,000
[It is very difficult to see which label belongs to which segment. But this is because of one of the more important errors. The Policy and regulation $629,460,000 label is a copy paste error from the Energy group below. That this is the case can be argued by the fact that there are only four segments for five labels, and below there are four for four. You could counter argue and say that there is two labels in this group of each about half a billion dollars – they could have been merged together in the single square segment (though this has not been seen anywhere else). But the sum total of all the individual labels throughout the Federal budget block comes to about 0.6 billion dollars too much compared with the Federal spending. Taking this double amount out would make the two values equal within 0.05 billion dollars. That it is still difficult to understand the system of the labels is probably due to yet a mistake. The label below the group with five squares at the bottom right, should have been the one belonging to the 5 billion dollar amount. So either the entire label, just the amount or the last three zeroes have been switched (the last possibility would increase the difference between spending and budget slightly). Finally there was probably supposed to be a bracket and a line from the single square up to the top label (which should have belonged to the single square to make sense). With the Policy included the total of this group is $24,074,460,000, without only $23,445,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Energy
Conservation $5,070,000,000
Policy and regulation $629,460,000
Supply $5,870,000,000
Preparedness $201,710,000
[It is here the Policy and regulation $629,460,000 belongs – see discussion above. It can be confusing that only the first labels amount is in the normal larger and bold font. For the rest the font is still bold but the same small font used for the text. For the first time a quarter square is used together with a three quarter square for the two small amounts. These two amounts (and square parts) are right above each other. The group total is $11,771,170,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Science/Tech
General R&D $12,850,000,000
Space $18,620,000,000
[Here two brackets indicate which segment belongs to which label – which was not really necessary here. The number of squares in the first segment is rounded down to make the total number of squares fit. The group total is $31,470,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
International
Foreign affairs $13,740,000,000
Foreign military aid $11,520,000,000
Information exchange $1,510,000,000
Foreign aid $19,270,000,000
[All segments have been marked with square bracket and lines goes from these to the labels , this is necessary here! The 1.51 billion dollars segment has been rounded down to one square to make the total number of squares fit. The group total is $46,040,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Agriculture
Farm income $16,830,000,000
R&D and services $4,820,000,000
[The group total is $21,650,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Justice
Law Enforcement $28,140,000,000
Criminal justice assistance $4,920,000,000
Legal $13,250,000,000
Corrections $7,850,000,000
[The group total is $54,160,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Community and regional development
Community $10,040,000,000
Regional $3,290,000,000
Disaster relief $10,800,000,000
[All three segments are clearly marked with square brackets and for the last also a line to the label. But there is a clear error for the last two labels, something must have been switched - either the numbers or the whole, as the number of squares in these two segments fits to each other’s amount. It seems most likely that it is the correct label but the wrong number. The group total is $24,130,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Transportation
Air $21,720,000,000
Water $9,480,000,000
Ground $61,610,000,000
[ All three segments are clearly marked with square brackets and a line to the labels. The last segment has been rounded down to make the group total fit. The group total is $92,810,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Educations and job training
Social services $19,440,000,000
Training/employment $9,990,000,000
Research and other labor $5,470,000,000
Higher education $20,300,000,000
K-12 $74,260,000,000
[Here there are no brackets, but it could have been used. Again two different fonts are used for the amount, so two are with the small font. This can make it easy to misinterpret the top label as the title of this group, especially since the title is located near the bottom close to an indentation in the last segment. And this segments label is quite far down and thus further away from its segment than the title. It would have been obvious to have lines to brackets from the two first mentioned segments to the two segments in the middle of the top row. There are 7 squares (not 5) in the Research... segment, but with 73 (not 74) in the K-12 segment these two errors cancels each other out so the total sum of squares fits. The group total is $129,460,000,000.]
[These items are singled out in a gray frame:]
Natural resources
Pollution control $10,990,000,000
Conservation $10,930,000,000
Recreation $3,960,000,000
Other resources $6,560,000,000
Water $11,810,000,000
[Here there are no brackets, but it could have been used. It seem like all three labels at the top have been shifted down and to the right whereas the two at the bottom seems to have been shifted down and to the left. Had this not been the case, there had been no need for brackets. There is used half a square in the last two - to make the total fit. The group total is $44,250,000,000.]
[The rest of the items in the Federal budget block is not singled out in any frames. The eight groups left below those in gray frames will be listed with the top group first, then the two groups to the left, then the four groups to the right and finally the bottom group. As these items have the group total given in the group title, this will no longer be mentioned, but comments on layout and errors will be given below each group. Four of the groups have no segments, the other four have. For those who have segments the labels will be mentioned left to right then top to bottom in the order the labels (not the segments) appear.]
Health/Medicaid $374,080,000,000
Health care $335,210,000,000
Safety $4,200,000,000
Research $34,670,000,000
[A square bracket marks out the left segment, but no brackets for the other two segments. There are 336 (not 335) squares in the Health care segment and also one too many in total (375 not 374). The sum of the three segments amount matches the total amount. This is (almost) the case also for the other three groups with segments.]
Interest on debt $198,870,000,000
Income security $630,680,000,000
Other income aid $184,350,000,000
Food aid $96,410,000,000
Retirement and disability (non-SS) $6,650,000,000
Housing $59,450,000,000
Government retirement and disability $121,500,000,000
Unemployment $162,330,000,000
[Here a brackets mark out the right part with a line out to the label. Half squares are used in the second and fourth segment. It can be a little tricky to see where this group starts and stops compared to the Military group below. Unemployment, however, is the last segment in this block as can be calculated from the segments sum total which is only $10,000,000 larger than the group total.]
Social Security $716,360,000,000
Federal payments to dead retirees $120,200,000
[This very tiny amount of less than an eight of a billion has been left floating away from the general outline of this entire block right next to the huge Social Security block. It could be for comparison reasons. However, another possibility is that it has been lost from the Veterans or Military group? But then it should have been before the group total was calculated for these two groups, as the difference between their group total and the segments sum total is not this big. (For Military it does reach 2/3 of the way with $80,000,000, see below). It seems like it consist of less than one full block, but it also looks slightly bigger than a half block? If anything it should at least have been down to a quarter square - a size used already (for the first time) under the Energy section of this block. Maybe it was chosen in this size as to not lose sight of it completely?]
Medicare $457,790,000,000
Veterans $109,860,000,000
Other $4,940,000,000
Training and rehab $8,200,000,000
Housing $547,000,000
Medical care $46,340,000,000
Unemployment $49,830,000,000
[Here brackets mark out both the single square and the segment to the left, both have a line going out to the labels. The top label is placed a little too high, as are the title, which can be confusing. There are only 44 (not 46) squares for Medical care, and the total is also two squares too few (108 not 110) The group total and the sum of the amount given on each segment is a little different, but only with $3,000,000.]
Military $703,030,000,000
R&D $78,040,000,000
Housing $3,220,000,000
Nuclear security $19,580,000,000
"Defense-related" $7,670,000,000
Construction $21,460,000,000
Personnel $157,810,000,000
Operations $279,750,000,000
Equipment $135,420,000,000
[The group total and the sum of the amount given on each segment is a little different 703.03 vs. 702.95 billion dollars. The difference is only $80,000,000.]

BP oil claims fund[edit]

[These five items are below the Disasters frame. They are not singled out. They are listed in two columns:]
BP oil claims fund $20,270,000,000
Total 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami aid from all countries $15,840,000,000
Worldwide aid to Somalia since 1991 $55,000,000,000
G8/IMF loan pledge to Arab Spring $73,000,000,000
Japan’s contribution to TEPCO victim fund $62,000,000,000

Cost to fund Wikipedia at current levels for 100 years[edit]

[These six items are below the BP oil spill section and Cost of Electricity frame. They are not singled out. They are listed four in top two row, and two below the last two items:]
Cost to fund Wikipedia at current levels for 100 years $1,850,000,000
Cost to provide free yearly tax prep to every US household $8,450,000,000
Cost to give every US 18 year-old a free degree at a community college $46,340,000,000
Additional cost to fund all US schools at magnet school levels $46,340,000,000
Annual cost to send every US child to a university for free $127,610,000,000
Cost to buy the Amazon rainforest ($100/acre going rate for poor access land) $130,000,000,000
[Note that there are two items in a row with the same amount $46,340,000,000. This could be a copy paste error, but the two blocks have 46 squares each.]

UBS loss from one rogue trader[edit]

[These three items are right of the Wikipedia section and below the Cost of Electricity frame. They are not singled out. They are listed top to bottom:]
UBS loss from one rogue trader $2,300,000,000
DoE loan to CA Valley Solar Ranch Project $1,200,000,000
Apple’s cash on hand $76,200,000,000

New York City[edit]

[This item is singled out as it is framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners. The frame is below the Cost to fund Wiki section to the right of the Federal Budget.]
New York City
(combined property value)
$806,490,000,000
[There are five groups, three in a row, and then two on top of each other at the end of the row. Only the first are with the normal yellow squares, the other groups are drawn with light yellow squares.]
Manhattan $281,040,000,000
Queens $208,180,000,000
Brooklyn $201,230,000,000
Staten Island $61,380,000,000
Bronx $54,660,000,000
[There are two error that cancel in the total sum as there are 209 (not 208) squares in Queens and only 54 (not 55) in Bronx. The sum fits, both for squares and the amounts.]

Megaprojects[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners. The frame is below the Cost to fund Wiki and UBS loss sections to the right of the New York City.]
Megaprojects
[There are 23 groups, three columns on top of the last five which are also sorted into three columns. They will be listed in columns as described. The last items in the two last of the first three columns is a little off the line. They will still be given in the order as they can be fit into these two columns:]
National missile defense shield cost through 2013 $107,690,000,000
F-22 Raptor program (halted) $67,610,000,000
Planned Russian Bering Strait tunnel $66,000,000,000
Obama’s 2011 high-speed rail proposal $53,000,000,000
Cost to build SF-to-LA high-speed rail $45,000,000,000
UK Crossrail $26,490,000,000
[The last part of the next group is drawn in light yellow squares and are labeled with a square bracket and a little line to the label. There are a total of 50 squares in the group.]
King Abdullah Economic City $50,020,000,000
High-speed rail $9,120,000,000
Hong Kong International airport $27,120,000,000
Manhattan project $24,400,000,000
2nd Avenue NYC subway line $17,960,000,000
Big Dig cost as of 2008 $18,510,000,000
Failed Army intelligence-sharing computer system $2,700,000,000
Bay Bridge span replacement $6,300,000,000
[The top of the last column of the next group is drawn in light yellow squares and are labeled with a square bracket. There are a total of 20 squares in the group.]
Downtown Dubai project $20,270,000,000
Burj Khalifa $1,520,000,000
Channel Tunnel $22,960,000,000
Nimitz-class carrier $4,930,000,000
Gerald R. Ford-class carrier $9,00,000,000
Amtrak 30-year plan for northeast corridor $192,000,000,000
City Qatar is building to host the 2022 World Cup $207,000,000,000
Apollo moon landing project $192,000,000,000
International Space Station $138,000,000,000
Space Shuttle program $194,620,000,000
US interstate highway system $465,970,000,000
(The largest single public-works project in the history of mankind)

Six things I learned[edit]

[This list is singled out as it is framed by a black frame with rounded corners. The frame is below the New York City frame and to the right of the Federal Budget section.]
Six things I learned while researching this chart:
1. The world’s most expensive thing by weight is probably the Treskilling Yellow postage stamp.
2. The US’s 400 richest people have a greater combined net worth than the poorest 50% of the country.
3. The EPA has a dollar value for human life; it’s currently $8.4 million. They don’t like to talk about it; they call it a VSL (Value of Statistical Life), and tend to use terms like “1000 Micro-VSLs”.
4. The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System is arguably the most expensive public works project in the history of mankind.
5. We spend roughly the same amount on cancer treatment as we do on cigarettes. I’m not sure what lesson to take from that.
6. Given their annual marketing budget, Coca-Cola could afford to literally buy the world a Coke. However, singing lessons for every person on Earth would be prohibitively expensive.

Budget options[edit]

[These items are below the Six things I learned frame.]
Budget options
Estimates by the Congressional Budget Office of the effect of various hypothetical policy decisions on annual tax revenue, averaged over the next ten years.
[The items are grouped in two columns with three segments each, and a title above the columns.]
Cost of existing tax cuts
Loss in annual revenue if tax cuts are made permanent
2001 (Bush) tax cuts $158,240,000,000
2003 (Bush) capital gains tax cuts $27,190,000,000
2010 (Obama) payroll tax cuts $111,700,000,000
Potential new taxes
Increase in annual tax revenue if implemented
Raise corporate taxes by one percentage point $10,060,000,000
Legalize marijuana and tax it at levels similar to tobacco $7,020,000,000
Institute tax on CO2 emissions $10,060,000,000
[There is a copy paste error in the last label from the first item in this row. There are 10 squares as expected the first time, but 118 squares for CO2. All other squares fits.]

Annual improper federal payments[edit]

[These seven items are below the Megaprojects frame. They are not all clearly related but will be listed together here. There is a column to begin with, at the bottom to the left there is block that will be listed as the last item in this column. Then there are three larger blocks to the right. They will be listed in that order:]
[For the first block a single square has been removed slightly from the rest of the squares. This is the same item as was also a loose square next to the huge Social Security group in the Federal Budget section. It has the exact same label.]
Annual improper federal payments compromising fraud, abuse, and poorly-documented payments $125,400,000,000
Federal payments to dead retirees $120,200,000
Ground Zero medical expenses fund $2,800,000,000
Total US spending since 2001 to secure borders $90,000,000,000
[The next block has been split in two. The smaller part has its own label. There are a total of 60 squares.]
Wasted money in Afghanistan/Iraq war contracts $60,000,000,000
Reconstruction money reportedly missing $18,000,000,000
NEA-estimated cost to bring all US schools into good repair $413,300,000,000
Annual economic cost of unmaintained infrastructure $129,000,000,000
Estimated direct annual agricultural value of bees $220,000,000,000

Stimulus spending[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The frame is below the Federal Budget and the Budget options sections.]
Stimulus spending
[There are two bocks with their title at the bottom left of each block. The first block is divided in three groups with labels. The two groups at the top are marked with a square bracket; one of them has a line to the label. All squares are drawn in a light yellow color.]
2008 $205,930,000,000
Student loan guarantees $33,470,000,000
Business tax breaks $52,360,000,000
Individual tax breaks $120,110,000,000
[Errors in 2008 – 53 (not 52) squares in Business to make the total number of squares fit. The sum total is 205.94 (not 205.93) billion dollars.]
[The second block is divided in 7 groups. All of which are marked with a square bracket and a label. Only the first group is drawn in light yellow squares, the rest are in the normal yellow color. The other six will be listed as their labels appear from top to bottom.]
2009 $747,950,000,000
Tax breaks $307,530,000,000
Education $90,460,000,000
Medicare/Medicaid $80,500,000,000
Transportation $32,560,000,000
Unemployment $62,740,000,000
Infrastructure $24,000,000,000
Other spending
[There are more serious errors in the 2009 block than in the 2008 block. There are 800 squares compared to the expected 748. As the number of squares rarely has been wrong, it could have been a 9 to 4 error, so the total should have been 797.95 billion dollars (798 blocks – only two wrong) rather than 747.95. However, there are both 10 too many squares in Tax breaks (318 not 308) and 8 too many in Medicare (89 not 81). So it is hard to guess what is correct here. There are 183 squares in the Other segment. If the values were correct there should only have been 150.]

Bailouts[edit]

[These items are not singled out but it is easy to see which four blocks belongs to the title. The heading is below the Stimulus spending frame.]
Bailouts
[There are four blocks on a row. The last is much taller than the other, and goes up alongside the Stimulus spending frame.]
1980s-1990s S&L bailout total cost to taxpayers $78,300,000,000
[Big error as there are drawn 180 not 78 squares. If he has forgotten a 1 ahead of the amount 178 billion, then it would only be two squares to many…]
Cost to FDIC of bank failures resulting from the 2008 financial crisis $19,000,000,000
[The next block is divided in three groups, each marked by a square bracket and a label (the middle also with a line to the label). The squares of the two bottom groups are drawn with a light yellow color. Labels are listed from the top.]
TARP bailout funds distributed (out of $700,000,000,000 available) $392,980,000,000
Estimated TARP taxpayer losses $41,660,000,000
Value of outstanding TARP assets $144,440,000
Bailout funds returned $206,880,000,000
[A triple zero error, where the last three zeroes (,000) has been left out of the middle of the TARP labels. There are only 36 not 42 squares in the top group and these 6 squares are also missing in the total (only 387 not 393). The sum total equals the total.]
[This tall block’s squares are all are drawn with a light yellow color.]
Current Eurozone bailout fund $1,361,700,000,000
[Rather large error here as there are only 1162 squares not 1362 so 200 is missing. There seem to be space enough for this extra layer on top.]

US nuclear arms spending during the Cold War[edit]

[These three items are below the Annual improper federal payments section and to the right of the Bailout section. They are not all clearly related but will be listed together here.]
[The first blocks is divided into a large group and two smaller groups. The smaller groups have separate labels and are singled out with a square bracket.]
US nuclear arms spending during the Cold War $2,818,300,000,000
Ballistic missile submarines $451,360,000,000
Ballistic missiles to put on those submarines $136,690,000,000
The $87 billion which John Kerry votes for/against $101,800,000,000
“Star Wars” missile defense system (1987 Heritage Foundation estimate) $185,300,000,000

US spending on wars[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The frame is below the Bailout and the US nuclear arms spending during the Cold War sections.]
US spending on wars 804,410,000,000
Including only direct spending on war operations, and not resulting veterans’ benefits or interest on debt incurred.
[A triple zero error here in the heading… where the last three zeroes (,000) has been left out of the total figure.]
[The block is divided in 12 groups. All of which are marked with a square bracket and a label. Two of the three small segments at the bottom left are also marked with a line between bracket and label. Starting from bottom left, these wars are listed chronological, the three small at the bottom from left to right, then from bottom to top in the rest of the first column, and then there is only one war each column up to the last, where the newest war is again at the top. Here the groups will be listed chronological (from starting year), so from the bottom and up all the way.]
American revolution $2,410,000,000
1812 $1,550,000,000
Mexican War $2,380,000,000
Civil War $79,740,000,000
Spanish-American War $9,030,000,000
World War I $334,000,000,000
World War II $4,104,000,000,000
Korean War $341,000,000,000
Vietnam War $738,000,000,000
Persian Gulf War $102,000,000,000
War in Afghanistan $321,000,000,000
Iraq War $784,000,000,000

Trillions[edit]

Complete on 2014-06-14

[This section is below the Billions section to the right of the Millions section – Global financial status is described here. It discusses derivatives, liquid assets, public debt by nation and GDP by continent, culminating with the total economic production of the human race to date.]
Trillions
[The Billions section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at the top of the Trillions section with lines indicating this zoom]
[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a trillion dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number cyan squares equal to the number of trillion dollars in the amount - so next to the value of all gold ever mines (9 trillion dollars) there will be 9 squares etc.]
[In this section the order of the items will be given in the three columns that are clearly defined (i.e. not from top to bottom as a first rule.)]

Size of derivatives market by year[edit]

[The first five items are singled out as they are framed by a light cyan square with rounded corners]
Size of derivatives market by year
1988 $3,090,000,000,000
1995 $26,690,000,000,000
2001 $86,390,000,000,000
2005 $227,260,000,000,000
2009 $439,000,000,000,000
[The next section inside the cyan frame is singled out in another black frame:]
Size of credit default swap market by year (included in the derivatives)
2001 $1,150,000,000,000
2005 $19,350,000,000,000
2007 $66,280,000,000,000
2009 $31,350,000,000,000

US household net worth[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The title stands at the bottom to the right]
US household net worth $58,740,000,000,000
[The first thrid part of the cyan squares are lighter and are labeled with a square bracket, similar there is two other bracket, one that covers all 58,5 squares, except for the last 1.5 which is marked by the other of these two brackets. In this order they read:]
Richest 1% $19,620,000,000,000
Richer half% $57,270,000,000,000
Poorer half% $1,470,000,000,000

Total debt in the US[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The title stands at the bottom]
Total debt in the US $36,560,000,000,000
[The squares are divided in to four – three of which are labeled with a square bracket, and for the last the text is written next to it]
Household $13,560,000,000,000
Federal government $9,510,000,000,000
State and local government $2,500,000,000,000
Business $10,980,000,000,000

World GDP[edit]

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]
World GDP $62,900,000,000,000
[The squares for each continent are shaped as best as possible (if there are enough squares) as the continent they represents]
[For North America the squares not representing the US are in a lighter color, one below (Mexico) and two above (Canada). Next to the squares representing the US is written the US GDP]
North America $17,850,000,000,000
United States $14,530,000,000,000
[The squares representing the EU are in the normal cyan color – the value stands above the squares. Below is the total for all of Europe – these extra squares are in the lighter color.]
EU $16,240,000,000,000
Europe (incl. Russia and Turkey) $20,130,000,000,000
Asia $17,530,000,000,000
South America $3,070,000,000,000
Africa $1,610,000,000,000
Oceania $1,310,000,000,000

One trillion dollars[edit]

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand yellow squares set to equal (=) one cyan square to indicate the size of a cyan square]
=
One trillion dollars $1,000,000,000,000

World total proven…[edit]

[This section includes other items than those belonging to the total proven items. But for those three blocks that do belong to this - there are a part of the blocks drawn in a lighter color, which are marked with a square bracket and labeled US reserves:]
World total proven oil reserves (November 2011 prices) $131,960,000,000,000
US reserves $20,580,000,000,000
World total proven coal reserves (2011 central Appalachian prices) $72,850,000,000,000
US reserves $20,020,000,000,000
World total proven natural gas reserves (2011 NYMEX prices) $21,470,000,000,000
US reserves $930,470,000,000
World total liquid assets $77,000,000,000,000
[The next block is split in four groups. The text has (by a mistake) been shifted up so some of the title text is inside the blocks. Also the two brackets that mark the main part and the three smaller parts have been shifted, so the main parts bracket is far away from the blocks, and the bracket that should indicate the three small parts only seems to indicate the two upper parts!]
All US real estate $28,380,000,000,000
Home $23,010,000,000,000
Commercial (includes stores, apartments, industrial, etc.) $5,370,000,000,000
Value of all gold ever mines (late 2011 prices) $9,120,000,000,000

GDP chart[edit]

[This section is a timeline bar chart of the world’s total GDP as function of year. The years are stated below the bottom of the chart:]
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
[Above the time lines are three types of blocks stacked to show the total GDP each year. At the bottom of the block bars are gray blue blocks, above them the normal cyan colored blocks and above them again lighter colored blocks. After the last bar at 2010 are three square brackets indicating what the three colors represent (there are no blocks until 1940, then only dark block until about 1950 where the cyan colored block fade in, and first in 1982-1983 do the lighter blocks fade in)]
US federal government
GDP (total economic productivity) of the US (minus government)
GDP (total economic activity) of the world (minus US)
[Above the bar chart two events are marked above the given year]
1991 recession
2008 global financial crisis

Total public debt[edit]

[This section is one long column]
Total public debt
(Note: US figures are from 2011, while the other use 2010 debt in 2011 dollars, which is likely an underestimate.)
ES (total) $13,340,000,000,000
[For US the debt is split in two, the normal cyan color, and then a subsection in lighter colored blocks]
United States $10,200,000,000,000
(Plus internal government borrowing of $4,740,000,000,000)
Japan $8,630,000,000,000
Germany $2,480,000,000,000
Italy $2,140,000,000,000
India $2,140,000,000,000
China $1,907,000,000,000
France $1,767,000,000,000
United Kingdom $1,654,000,000,000
Brazil $1,281,000,000,000
Canada $1,130,000,000,000
Spain $834,000,000,000
Mexico $584,860,000,000
Greece $460,180,000,000

Total economic production[edit]

Estimated total economic production of the human race (so far) $2,396,950,000,000,000
(roughly three-fifths of it since 1980)

Dedication[edit]

[Below the entire chart there is a single line of text - right below the Trillions chart. As this dedication is not part of the five sections it will be written here:]
Thank you to Emily Collins for economics help, Ray Nute for corporate accounting help, Sara Gillespie for miscellaneous information, and Christina Gleason for 3 AM typesetting.