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I'm curious where Standard Oil would stand had it not been broken up.

PetroChina was actually worth more than one billion USD a few years ago when a-shares became available at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

You mean trillion I think.

A long-scale billion is a short-scale trillion. How I hate this confusion! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Thanks, I never know which one to use if a use English with a mixed audience.

In numbers, I mean 10^12. As a written word, you are right that for most HN readers, trillion is the probably the correct term.