"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money". Maybe Senator Dirksen never really said that, but it is difficult to think about big numbers. This is especially true when dealing with different currency exchange rates.
This is a map that tries to make it easier to understand these numbers. It tries to clarify just how big the US economy is, compared to the rest of the world.
Updated:
Thanks, Rescue Rangers, for putting me on the list!
Yes, I can see that China, Germany, Japan, etc. are larger than ANY U.S. state.
And I do agree... what's really interesting is comparing these numbers to financial flows. The total dollars washing back and forth around the world is astounding, and dwarfs almost any economy, including the U.S. economy.
Which several folks have noted, that's mostly speculative money, chasing a return. For example, take the amount of money that went into the U.S. Housing Bubble. The money (credit) buying Mcmansions, granite countertops and expensive stucco shacks probably exceeded the annual GDP of many countries.
And as credit contracts..... "the Grand Ah-whoom"....
Another time, perhaps.
I found this while browsing the bigpicture.com today. According to Bigpicture, the map is 'Each state's economic output is analogized to another country's GDP (gross domestic product)."
It's a fascinating map, originally from Carl Størmer's blog. It seems to be reasonably accurate, with some 'notable exclusions'. China and Japan, for example, are not listed, and I'm not sure why, since I can't read what appears to be Norwiegen on Carl's blog.
But, if you'd like to check the accuracy of some of the sources, you might check the cia world factbook, and compare it to some of the references listed on Wikipedia.
Take California, for example.
This is the France entry for the cia factbook. TheGDP is about two trillion dollars in 2005.
And here is the Wikipedia entry for the California economy. As you can see, there are different estimates for how big the California economy is. About 1.5 trillion, in 2003. But California and France are in the same general league.
This does help put things into some perspective.
And yes, it does supress the actual impact that some of these countries have ... which is sometimes FAR in excess of their 'GDP'. I'd argue that you could lost most of Tennesee's GDP output and the world would not notice it. But if you lost a small fraction of Saudi Arabia's output.... well, you can imagine the problems the world would have.
Now, if someone could just read Carl's blog in its original language, we could find out why he didn't include China, Japan, etc.
As often said about the world economy, "When the U.S. sneezes, the world catches a cold".
Good or bad, now you know why.