The Volokh Conspiracy - Sometimes the Media Can Be a Little Too Cautious:

The AP reports:

A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he recieved a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after after his death....

As Tom Elia (The New Editor) points out, sometimes one really doesn't need to present both sides: "Seeing that GDP for the entire world was around $40 trillion in 2004, and that the world's largest corporation, Exxon Mobil, had about $328 billion in sales in FY 2006, I think it's safe to say that the $218 trillion phone bill was a mistake. But, it's a good thing the Associated Press covered themselves ... ya know ... just in case."

	[Eugene Volokh, April 10, 2006 at 5:16pm] Trackbacks Sometimes the Media Can Be a Little Too Cautious: The AP reports: A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he recieved a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday. Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported. But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported. It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after after his death.... As Tom Elia (The New Editor) points out, sometimes one really doesn't need to present both sides: "Seeing that GDP for the entire world was around $40 trillion in 2004, and that the world's largest corporation, Exxon Mobil, had about $328 billion in sales in FY 2006, I think it's safe to say that the $218 trillion phone bill was a mistake. But, it's a good thing the Associated Press covered themselves ... ya know ... just in case."