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 below that illuminate the markets, the world of financial services and big business:
-
Percentage of workers in the financial services industry who say they are “behind schedule” in achieving their retirement financial goals: 54
-
Percentage of workers across all industries who say so: 47
-
Combined 2006 salaries of the CEOs of Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley: $59 million
-
Aggregate decrease in stock market capitalization for these firms over the last 12 months: $330 billion
-
Number of companies this proxy season that adopted “clawback” provisions, allowing recovery of past executive pay based on incorrect financial statements: 295
-
Number of companies with clawback provisions in 2004: 14
-
Projected cost of Gulfstream Aerospace G650, which will fly at Mach 0.925 and is due for delivery in 2012: $60 million
-
Monthly amount Williams Sonoma pays chairman and CEO Howard Lester to lease his private Bombardier Global Express 5000 jet for the next three years: $375,000
-
Average hourly wage for rank-and-file workers in U.S. as of May 2008: $17.94
-
Number of Chinese who climbed out of poverty between 1990 and 2004: 400 million
-
Year when China will have more Ph.D. scientists and engineers than the U.S.: 2010
-
Number of people awaiting kidney transplants in the U.S. as of June 1, 2008: 75,629
-
Number of “friends” NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has on his Facebook profile: 3,715
-
Increase in cable TV subscription rates since 1966: 77 percent
-
Of the 118 channels the average cable subscriber pays for, the percentage actually viewed: 13
-
Estimated amount that online scam artists stole in 2007, up over 20 percent from 2006: $239 million
-
Average loss per incident: $484
-
Percentage of workplaces that have a published policy against romance between co-workers: 33
-
Number of McDonald's Restaurants in the U.S.: 14,000
-
Number of payday lender storefronts: 25,000
-
Effective annual interest rate for a $500 payday loan paid within 14 days for a fee of $100: 521 percent
-
Average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S., as of June 10, 2008: $4.05
-
Cost of gasoline per gallon in England: $8.38
-
Cost of Budweiser beer per gallon in the U.S.: $11.44
-
Number of industrialized countries, out of 32, that have cheaper gasoline than the U.S.: One (Mexico)
Sources: 1-2 MetLife; 3-4 New York Times; 5-6 Corporate Library; 7-8 New York Times; 9 World Bank; 10-11 New York Times; 12 United Network for Organ Sharing; 13 New York Times; 15 Bureau of Labor Statistics; 16-17 FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center; 18 Yahoo Hotjobs; 19 McDonald's; 20-21 Americans for Fairness in Lending; 22-25 International Energy Agency.