Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

Jacob A. Riis

This is not my... GDP

So - how much do we have...

Well the UK alone has a GDP of $1.782 trillion (yes that is TRILLION) so altogether the G8 countries have a fair amount...

GDP of the G8 countries

US	$ 11.75 trillion
Japan	$ 3.745 trillion
Germany	$ 2.362 trillion
UK	$ 1.782 trillion
France	$ 1.737 trillion
Italy	$ 1.609 trillion
Russia	$ 1.408 trillion
Canada	$ 1.023 trillion
Total	$ 26.439 trillion

(Sorry couldn't resist the urge to write trillion out each time - its not often that you can unless you are a tyrannical maniac holding the earth to ransom... so just George W then...)

So that total again - $26.439 trillion

We aren't doing too badly.

Especially when we note that the GDP of the poorest country in the world, East Timor, is $370 million. (CIA World Fact Book)

Not much more than you could have won on the US Powerball Jackpot on 19th October 2005.

We made a group for This is not my... high jinx. So sign up and come and play!