*Less illuminating is the habit of writing something along the lines of “If the US national debt was a pile of dollar bills, it would stretch all the way to space / to the moon / to the sun.” Some journalists seem to think this is a great way to put a big number into context. Is it? Generally I find myself stupider at the end of such sentences. Do you know how many dollar bills there are in a pile a yard high? (About eight thousand. I had to look it up, of course. Anyone would.) Space is generally regarded as being more than 60 miles above us, the moon is nearly 238,900 miles away, and the sun 93.6 million miles away—so a pile that stretches to the sun is a lot bigger than one that stretches to space. By my calculations, the US national debt would be a pile of dollar bills reaching to the moon six times. Happy now? I find it much clearer to note that it is about $70,000 per US citizen.