Dear TEd: I thought the British were less inflationary than US. My recollection is that for them a billion is a milion million, where to us it is a thousand million. Correct me if I am wrong. At the moment I can't think where to check it, but will now try.Here's what I found:

t's like a British billion being 1,000,000 x 1,000,000, but a US billion being
merely 1000 x 1,000,000. The US version is the most commonly used,
by a long chalk, so it's the de facto definition. And the one we use here
on The Reg.