How big is a billion? One 1000 times less than in French. - Un billion c'est 1000 fois plus qu'en anglais.

In Canada we are always confronted with a vexing clash of the billions between french an english:

• 1 Billion in english is 1000 million. (It once was one million million but was changed in the current "short system")  
• 1 Billion in french is one million million. (the official "long system") They use miliard for the english 1000 million.

I don't like it. We should use Giga and Tera to end the confusion. 

• A Giga dollar is 1000 million dollars, 
• A Tera dollar is one million million dollars.

Let's banish the billion / trillion in both languages and be done with it. 

Or would you prefer reintroducing the french milliard to replace the Billion in english? Nah, Giga will do.

Steve