Long and short scale.

Question

Billions, trillions and so forth can be confusing. Two scales are used. A long scale, used in many english-speaking countries:

10^3 - thousand
10^6 - million
10^9 - billion
10^12 - trillion
10^15 - quadrillion
10^18 - quintillion
10^21 - sextillion
(each "-illion" increases by a power of 3)

And a long scale, used in most european countries:

10^3 - mille
10^6 - million
10^9 - milliard
10^12 - billion
10^15 - billiard
10^18 - trillion
10^21 - trilliard
(each "-illion" increases by a power of 6 with a "-illiard" in-between)

This can be confusing for an european when reading international news. For example, when the US is spending a trillion(en) dollars, it's actually spending a billion(fr), 10^12, not a trillion(fr), 10^18.

Answer

Oh, unfortunately the formatting of my message was removed. As it stands in one line it's just a jumble of words.