World News: If You Were a Billionaire for Five Hours

by Robert Frank
Thursday, April 1, 2010

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When Paul Fischer checked his bank account Friday night, he had a happy surprise. His balance had exploded to $88,888,888,888.88. A very lucky number indeed, and close to $89 billion. Of course, the balance was a technical error by SunTrust Bank (NYSE: STI), which quickly fixed the problem. It also may have occurred in other accounts.

"You say, 'Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?'" said Mr. Fischer, who owns a jewelry concessionaire for Florida theme parks. "Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank." Mr. Fischer had other ideas as well. Before the problem was fixed, he asked a SunTrust rep if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account until it was reclaimed and donate the interest to charity. Total interest: more than $7.3 million. The bank said no. The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning.

"It's all gone. I'm poor again," he said. "I was a billionaire for five hours." This kind of bank error happens frequently. But Mr. Fischer raises an interesting question: What if, for five hours, you truly did have $89 billion? What would you do with the money? The ground rules are that you would have to give the money back — and whatever you bought or invested with it — after five hours. Source: The Wall Street Journal 02/04/10

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My Comments: Imagine this incident also happening in the United States. Tell yourself, if you have about 88 billion and not millions in your bank account and that's when you find out when you withdraw the money without you yourself deposit any moeny into the bank? Don't you feel happy about it? Well, if for me, I would be in happy shocked and I just realize I just had been a billionaire and guess what, with 88 billion, you can actually do a lot of things already. Just resign from your work and then just concentrate with the investment or even you can take over a business to lead and you are much richer from now on. Well, lucky you Mr. Fisher for for at least holding the money for at least 5 hours. How nice if I could be FOREVER! :)