Banning billions

Madam, – Could we for the foreseeable future refrain from using the word billion? Within this small easily pronounceable word…

Madam, – Could we for the foreseeable future refrain from using the word billion? Within this small easily pronounceable word lurks a magnitude not readily assimilated.We all know it is a multiple of a million, but what a multiple!

Anglo Irish Bank did not just lose €4 billion in the past six months, it lost four thousand million euro.

Now, as we set about recapitalising the same Anglo Irish Bank to the tune of seven thousand million euro, does the enormity sink in? – Yours, etc,

CYRIL McGLOUGHLIN,

Holmpatrick,

Skerries,

Co Dublin.