Canada

What can you buy with $50 billion?

To put the government’s anticipated budget deficit in context, we spent the money (theoretically) 13 ways

With the federal budget deficit expected to punch through the $50 billion mark this year, we wondered what one could buy with that kind of cash. Here’s what we came up with:

6.5 billion Big Mac combos
10 nuclear reactors
467 Nortel Networks
641 of the most expensive Ming Vase ever sold
520 Neverland Ranches
33 Yankee Stadiums
25 per cent of the Microsoft Corp.
235 Phoenix Coyote NHL franchises
71 Mona Lisas
1.2 billion copies of Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons (at the MSRP of $39.99)
A little more than one Bill Gates
5,000 large private islands in the Caribbean
50 million Julie Couillard dresses (or at least the low-cut number sold at auction in April)

Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments below.

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