On: $1T is leaving Britain because of Brexit

[pjc50]

When I looked at it they'd fixed it to £800 billion. I was wondering if someone had accidentally used the old UK billion meaning a "million million".

(Whole article is very likely to get flagged off, btw)

[lorenzhs → pjc50]

I don't know why this was downvoted, but the UK officially used the "long scale" (million = 10^6, milliard = 10^9, billion = 10^12) until 1974, although the "short scale" (billion = 10^9, trillion = 10^12) had become increasingly popular before that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Use. In most of Europe, the long scale is still used today.