Tears, smiles by the billion at London Games

LONDON (Reuters) - Fourteen billion dollars goes a long, long way; it would buy you three U.S. aircraft carriers or six NASA rover missions to Mars.

You could buy all of the Queen's castles, as well as all the rolling royal estates that stretch across her island realm, and still have some cash left over. You might even pay Britons' old age state pensions, if only for a month.