Japanese companies moved billions of dollars worth of production capacity overseas, putting auto plants in Tennessee and electronics factories in Malaysia, for example.

Moreover, exchange rates also became highly volatile as world capital markets become closely integrated and it became possible to move billions of dollars among currencies almost instantaneously.

Those things could move billions of tons, thousands of these flying cannons.

It would entail trying to move tens of billions of people in a matter of hours.

"We have moved billions and billions of gallons of water out of the canals."

In an interconnected world, where investors can move billions across oceans at the touch of a button, these countries have little reason to shift strategies.

Mr. Berlin, through his company, Benex International, controlled several accounts at the bank that moved billions of dollars from Russia between 1996 and last year.

Those delays have threatened a maritime industry that generates more than 180,000 jobs in the region and moves tens of billions of dollars in cargo.

Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of the country in an enormous capital flight.

A dozen offshore banks identified in the report as having a history of suspicious accounts moved billions of dollars through correspondent accounts in the last several years.