The Six Billion Dollar Man

According to the latest figures, the man who eventually becomes the leader of the free world will be the winner of a $6bn contest. Think on that .... Six Billion Dollars!

Yes according to the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent research group which tracks the money in politics, they estimate that the total cost of the USA's November elections for the Presidency, House of Representatives and Senate, will come in at $5.8bn (£3.7bn).

Election Results 2008 - 2012 Spending will be up up 7% on 2008.

To give this some context, here are all the countries of the world whose annual Gross Domestic Product is less than $6bn:

1. Bahamas
2. Palestinian territories
3. Zimbabwe
4. French Polynesia
5. Benin
6. Nicaragua
7. Lao People's Democratic Republic
8. Mongolia
9. Haiti
10. Bermuda
11. Republic of Moldova
12. Rwanda
13. Tajikistan
14. Kosovo
15. Niger
16. Monaco
17. Malawi
18. Liechtenstein
19. Kyrgyzstan
20. Guinea
21. Montenegro
22. Netherlands Antilles
23. Barbados
24. Swaziland
25. Mauritania
26. Suriname
27. Andorra
28. Cayman Islands
29. Togo
30. Fiji
31. Aruba
32. Guyana
33. Eritrea
34. Lesotho
35. Sierra Leone
36. Greenland
37. Central African Republic
38. Cape Verde
39. San Marino
40. Bhutan
41. Burundi
42. Maldives
43. Belize
44. Turks and Caicos Islands
45. Saint Lucia
46. Djibouti
47. Antigua and Barbuda
48. Somalia
49. Gambia
50. Seychelles
51. British Virgin Islands
52. Liberia
53. Guinea-Bissau
54. Timor-Leste
55. Grenada
56. Vanuatu
57. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
58. Zanzibar
59. Solomon Islands
60. Samoa
61. Saint Kitts and Nevis
62. Comoros
63. Dominica
64. Tonga
65. Micronesia, Federated States of
66. Cook Islands
67. Palau
68. Sao Tome and Principe
69. Anguilla
70. Marshall Islands
71. Kiribati
72. Nauru
73. Montserrat
74. Tuvalu

But as Michael Toner, former chair of the US Federal Election Commission pointed out "Americans last year spent over $7bn [£4.5bn] on potato chips - isn't the leader of the free world worth at least that?"

Still its a funny world isn't it, when US expenditure on potato chips (crisps UK) or US elections is greater than the entire economies of up to 78 countries.