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The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

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Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#421

Post by fortran77 »

RajT88 wrote: post #218
onionisafruit wrote: post #195

From a 2014 reddit post[0]: > This is actually not a million dollars in singles. It is over $1,000,000. The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the contractor, but they still decided to fill it, display it, and claim it is $1,000,000. > > Source: Tour Guide at the Chicago Fed [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2f9sp7/one_million_do...

This thread is very informative on your chances of carrying off a heist stealing this cube. Conclusion: Low, unless you're willing to take only a fraction of the face value. Thinking through it though - you might be able to get away with spending the cash overseas, where it will take some time indeed for the money to be under scrutiny by banks to see if the serial numbers are out of circulation. There's then problem…

It shouldn't be a problem spending $1 bills. Nobody scrutinizes them. It'll just take a while.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#422

Post by smj-edison »

lxgr wrote: post #408
smj-edison wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be precise, the treasury prints the bills, not the federal reserve. The federal reserve balances what money is in circulation by selling or buying bonds. When they issue a bond, someone buys it, so money is removed from circulation. When they buy a bond, money is injected into circulation.

It’s the other way around. The treasury issues bonds; the Fed buys (or repos) them in exchange for newly issued USD.

Oh whoops, you're right!

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#423

Post by d1sxeyes »

aspenmayer wrote: post #391
Daneel_ wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That always means "two Fridays from now" - so if it's Tuesday, then they mean next Friday. I use " week" in conversation, but I'd say it's falling out of favour. I mostly use it with my parents.

What if the person saying that means “Friday this week” sometimes and “Friday next week” other times? How can you know that they don’t from an isolated utterance? Can you know with reasonable certainty that the person saying it knows what you think they mean? From context you might know if it seems like they know how to use the phrase, but I always struggle to understand these quirks, perhaps because I heard these te…

> What if the person saying that means “Friday this week” sometimes and “Friday next week” other times?

Well, I suppose they could, but then what if they meant Thursday?

“Friday week” is surprisingly unambiguous. It always means “count forward from today until a Friday, then add a week”. Its partner is “Friday coming”, which is “count forward until a Friday”.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#424

Post by aspenmayer »

d1sxeyes wrote: post #423
aspenmayer wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the person saying that means “Friday this week” sometimes and “Friday next week” other times? How can you know that they don’t from an isolated utterance? Can you know with reasonable certainty that the person saying it knows what you think they mean? From context you might know if it seems like they know how to use the phrase, but I always struggle to understand these quirks, perhaps because I heard these te…

> What if the person saying that means “Friday this week” sometimes and “Friday next week” other times? Well, I suppose they could, but then what if they meant Thursday? “Friday week” is surprisingly unambiguous. It always means “count forward from today until a Friday, then add a week”. Its partner is “Friday coming”, which is “count forward until a Friday”.

> > What if the person saying that means “Friday this week” sometimes and “Friday next week” other times?

> Well, I suppose they could, but then what if they meant Thursday?

> “Friday week” is surprisingly unambiguous. It always means “count forward from today until a Friday, then add a week”. Its partner is “Friday coming”, which is “count forward until a Friday”.

That’s good that it’s unambiguous to you, as you happen to be correctly interpreting the meaning from the words as written, but I don’t read the context the same way, as in, your reading doesn’t always read as written, when I’m doing the reading. It comes naturally to you, it seems, but less so to me, if I can explain.

To me, “Friday coming/this coming Friday” is just as underspecified because it communicates explicitly ambiguously that which is definitively known due to unknown knowns and/or unknown unknowns: you don’t know if I know what day it is today or not, and on days I haven’t been outside yet, I may not know if it’s AM/PM or midnight or noon. I could think I know what day it is and be honestly mistaken, leading me to believe that the next/coming Friday is a day away, as in tomorrow, but miss that it’s already Friday today, making the listener think I mean a week from now, when I mean right now for events taking place on the night of the day in question.

I also think it’s ambiguous what “coming/next Friday” means, because it’s obvious that the one coming up this week is coming up, so it seems too on the nose to refer to it as such, which makes me think that it’s a week from now, but this time, they actually do mean the Friday a few days from now.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#425

Post by Uvix »

jameshart wrote: post #364
bandofthehawk wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pennies and nickels cost more to make than they are worth.

People are quick to state this as if it's a slam dunk case for 'we shouldn't make them any more', but I don't understand the thinking there. An individual coin can be used many many times to facilitate many many transactions before it eventually falls out of circulation through loss or damage. The amount you should spend on making coins of a given denomination has nothing to do with what the total face value of those…

Stores are going to round amounts in their favor, not customers’. So they will make more money once the penny falls out of circulation.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#426

Post by myself248 »

aspenmayer wrote: post #410
nerdile wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native US English speaker here, and this is the first time I have ever heard of this. TIL

Every time I hear it, it befuddles me just like the first time. It seems like a syntax error or something. My mind literally reels, like the idea is a fish and I can nearly feel the fishing line drag but the syntax and grammar isn’t rigidly applied, and so I can’t increase the tension or the line will snap, as it isn’t rated for this hefty and impactful of an idea as when something occurs specifically. I don’t know i…

It's like saying "half ten" instead of "ten thirty". There's a missing word, it's "half past ten", it's "friday next week".

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#427

Post by aspenmayer »

antod wrote: post #419
nerdile wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native US English speaker here, and this is the first time I have ever heard of this. TIL

Reasonably commonly used in Commonwealth countries. Next Friday is sometimes too ambiguous, you can never be sure you share the same definition with the other person. Is it the same as This Friday (the very next occurring Friday), or Friday Week (ie next week's Friday).

I heard it used this way in Australia, and I’ve heard it now and then in British TV programs. Only have heard it among very old timers in isolated areas in the US a few times when I was very young previously.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#428

Post by aspenmayer »

myself248 wrote: post #426
aspenmayer wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I hear it, it befuddles me just like the first time. It seems like a syntax error or something. My mind literally reels, like the idea is a fish and I can nearly feel the fishing line drag but the syntax and grammar isn’t rigidly applied, and so I can’t increase the tension or the line will snap, as it isn’t rated for this hefty and impactful of an idea as when something occurs specifically. I don’t know i…

It's like saying "half ten" instead of "ten thirty". There's a missing word, it's "half past ten", it's "friday next week".

How do I know the missing word isn’t [up]coming, as in “Friday (coming [up] (this)) week”? As opposed to next week, which would be “Friday (next) week” in this syntax.

For that matter, the missing word could be this, as in “Friday (this) week” versus “Friday (that (as in the next one after the one contrasted with via the word this) week”. I have no way to disambiguate this, so I ask something like “Friday after tomorrow” or “Friday the 13th” or something. It’s hard being me at times, I’ll admit.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#429

Post by dheera »

onionisafruit wrote: post #195

From a 2014 reddit post[0]: > This is actually not a million dollars in singles. It is over $1,000,000. The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the contractor, but they still decided to fill it, display it, and claim it is $1,000,000. > > Source: Tour Guide at the Chicago Fed [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2f9sp7/one_million_do...

(a) How do we know there isn't some hollow part inside the cube?

(b) Whovever hypothetically got that money would have 37% stolen by the government so they'd be left with about a million anyways. It's effectively a million.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#430

Post by margalabargala »

a3w wrote: post #163
red_admiral wrote: post #140

The economist's answer would be to offer to buy the cube for $1.1M. Tell them the extra $100k will fund building another cube plus expenses with spare cash left over. If you're right, pass GO and collect the payout.

Making 1.1 million into about 550 k? It is less by nearly 50 percent, not more.

No, making 1.1 million into nearly 1.5 million. It is more by nearly 50 percent, not less.
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