How much is that really?

Dear Congressman,

It appears the French bank employee who traded above his pay grade has received the French version of justice. Jerome Kerviel is most well known for moving the Dow over 500 points downward when the US markets were closed for Martin Luther King Day as his superiors at Societe Generale desperately unwound his unauthorized positions before anyone got wind of what they were doing. Societe Generale took a huge loss on his trade positions, approximately $6.7 billion, when they closed them out. However, if they had let word out before hand about what they were doing, then all the other traders would have sat on their hands and held out for rock bottom pricing, costing them even more in losses and potentially bankrupting one of France's largest banks.

So it was no surprise that besides a five year jail sentence, Jerome was ordered to repay the entire $6.7 billion to Societe Generale.

How is he going to accomplish this? Lets run the numbers....

Jerome will go to jail for about 2.2 years of a 3 year sentence before release for good behavior. He was born in 1977 so in when he is released he will be 36 years old. As the average life expectancy in France is currently 81 years, Jerome will need to find employment that pays $148 million per year to meet this bill before he meets his maker. Even if Jerome takes no vacation time, he will still need to earn $1,590.69 per hour of every working day of his life, unless he works some overtime, and then that will lower the average a bit. That doesn't include any taxes or factor in that Jerome will occasionally want to eat or drink something, so actual needs might be a tad higher.

Or, lets say French doctors put down the wine and cigarettes long enough to come up with a miracle drug that makes us live longer. A big if... but what the heck... that would mean that if Jerome can find a gig that lets him clear $80,000 per year (not to shabby for a convicted felon), then he will only have to labor a mere 83,750 years before Societe Generale will stamp his lien free and clear. So he might miss a couple of ice ages here and there, but at least he will have a clear conscience.