But technologically? If there is a will to do so someplace like at Bernanke's office? Sadly, no. He could print a quick trillion to build a 3rd-gen ASIC factory and make enough chips to sustain a fatal attack on the network... All without telling congress anything.
I think friedcat would want that trillion turned into bitcoins (which would have an interesting impact on bitcoin), A new fab would take some time to get the chips right, or the trillion dollar BFL pre-order will never ship. Ben might have a lot of friends, but I doubt he has a chip fab in his back pocket for cranking out sha256 ASICs faster than someone will ask him questions.
As to the article, I can say that I didn't freak out because early adoption and prospecting include an expected loss from time to time. But when you get it right, the surprise payoff is big enough to make up for those losses. It is all about expectations.