Have you noticed? We used to hear of 'millions' that a wealthy person had, 'millions' that somone had hijacked or had been garnered in a fraudulent scheme, 'millions' as in 'millionaire'.

Now we toss around 'billions' as casually as if we understood the figure. Banks are bailed out to the tune of billions, approaching trillions, the auto industry is loaned billions, Madoff defrauds investors of $50 billions.

What's next? Is this just inflation? Is the new million a billion?