We've talked several times on this blog about the threat of inflation, but it's apparently already a serious problem in New Hampshire. It was in Manchester there that a man bought a pack of cigarettes at a gas station and swiped his debit card to pay for them. When he checked his account online, he discovered how much a pack of cigarettes is going for these days: $23,148,855,308,184,500. That's twenty-three quadrillion dollars!
We're also seeing signs of inflation in San Francisco, where a teenager ate out at Applebee's, charged the meal to his Visa Buxx card, and later discovered he owed $23,148,855,308,184,500. That number may look familiar.
There were several other $23 quadrillion charges around the country, and Visa quickly discovered the computer error that was causing it. Now, computer errors are a fact of life, and it's hard to get too upset about one. But what was really uncalled for was that the Manchester man's New Hampshire bank tried to get him to pay a $15 overdraft fee - obviously, his account didn't have $23 quadrillion in it. It took him an inexcusable two hours on the phone to get the whole thing straightened out.
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