How much is $7 billion? Taking a different look at the Societe Generale trader's damages

PARIS – The Paris appeals court has ordered former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel to spend three years in prison and pay back €4.9 billion (about $7 billion) to the bank in damages for one of the biggest trading frauds in history.

If that sum sounds a tad dizzying, it is. Here's some perspective on $7 billion:

— Kerviel used to take home a salary and bonus of under €100,000 (about $155,700) a year. For him to pay off those damages, he would have to work 49,000 years.

— It's about double the amount of money that Facebook made last year.

— It can buy 17 million Ferraris.

— It can buy 20 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets.

— It's the size of the economy of the eastern European nation of Moldova.

— It's way more than the cost of the 2012 U.S. election (projected by analysts to be around $6 billion.)