Smart decisions are based on more than government statistics, agency reports, news releases, interest rates and stock quotes. We've selected a few fascinating statistics here that illuminate the markets, the world of financial services and big business. Presenting the Registered Rep. Index.
- Factor by which Toyota's market cap ($163 billion) exceeded that of General Motors,($6.1 billion), as of July 1, 2008: 26
- Percentage change by 2012 in the after-tax income of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. earners, under Barack Obama's tax plan: -5
- Percentage change under John McCain's tax plan: +12
- Average number of months after the beginning of a recession that it takes the Business Cycle Dating Committee to declare a recession: 10
- Scrap value of the Statue of Liberty's 31 tons of copper and 125 tons of steel on-the-spot market as of June 30, 2008: $202,000
- Scrap value of The Liberty Bell's 2,080 pounds of bronze: $3,850
- Number of American cities where all regularly scheduled airline service has been eliminated since January 2007: 38
- Number of new U.S. airports built since 1993: 1
- Incremental cost to U.S. airlines this year due to increases in the price of jet fuel: $20 billion
- Change in resale value of average large SUVs from March 2008 to May 2008: -13 percent
- Amount the automobile industry will lose in 2007 on sales of previously leased SUVs: $4.7 billion
- Percentage change since 2006 in the price of used cooking oil, which can be recycled to make biodiesel fuel: 240
- Estimated U.S. energy consumption as a percent of GDP in 2008: 14 percent
- Total value of financial products with interest rates set to London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor): $150 trillion
- The current value of a “statistical life,” as recalculated in 2008 by the Environmental Protection Agency: $6.9 million
- Percent decrease in value since 2005: 11
- Oil imports, in thousands of barrels per day, from Saudi Arabia in April 2008: 1,453
- From Canada: 1,952
- Minimum number of countries that have more than 100 percent cell phone penetration: 30
- Rate of cell phone penetration in U.S: 85 percent
- Estimated portion of global births and deaths, respectively, that are not registered or documented: 2/5 and 2/3
- Chance that a home in the U.S. is now vacant: 1 in 35
- Total stock and mutual fund holdings of individual Americans, excluding pension accounts, at the end of 1999: $12.8 trillion
- At the end of 2007: $10.6 trillion
Sources: 1 Bloomberg; 2-3 Tax Policy Center; 4 National Bureau of Economic Research; 5-6 National Park Service, Iron Industries; 7 U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics; 8 Airports Council International, Geneva; 9 Air Transport Association of America; 10-11 CNW Marketing Research; 12 Jacobson Publishing Company; 13 Energy Information Administration; 14 British Bankers Association; 15-16 Environmental Protection Agency; 17-18 Oil & Gas Journal; 19-20 Informa Telecoms and Media, Telecommunications; 21 World Health Organization; 22 U.S. Census Bureau; 23-24 Birinyi Associates