How Much Is 24 Ounces Anyway?

Financial information is a wonder of diversification and complexity. A continuous flow of opinions, startling revelations, big deals and forecasts keep us at the very least entertained if not bamboozled.

Often data are difficult to comprehend partly because of their order of magnitude. A one hundred billion dollar Facebook underwriting, a required Greek debt installment payment of nineteen billion dollars, a five hundred and eighty billion Canadian federal debt and Nortel reserves of unknown millions are dazzling numbers to say the least.

Physical dimensions provide little comfort. How much oil is five hundred and thirty thousands barrels per day flowing through the proposed Gateway Northern Pipeline anyway? How deep is an offshore oil well that ruptures at three kilometers below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico? How big is a mining merger resulting in the combined company controlling a third of the internationally traded thermal coal, 25% of the world’s zinc market and first in the control of producing and marketing copper?

Now comes the news that Tim Hortons is moving to a twenty four ounce cup of coffee. We can all feel, see, lift, and drink 24 oz of coffee. We can also take measure of Hortons by gauging lineup lengths and observe outward signs of customer satisfaction. At last we are on equal footing with the experts. No longer will they explain the inexplicable using terms such as “the two hundred day moving average” and “EBITDA”.

There is something comforting when an analyst expounds on the virtues of twenty four ounces of coffee instead of eight gigabytes of memory and the largest merger in history with a total value of sixty four billion euros. Peter Cundill said ” … to make an investment, I must understand the opportunity in fifteen minutes”. The coffee idea qualifies.

By the way, 530,000 barrels of oil per day is around one billion cups of the new 24oz. cup of coffee.