The Rep. Index
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.
Minimum number of luxury hotels and conference centers that have dropped the “R” word from their names in a bid to attract companies reluctant to book conferences at “resorts” following criticism of AIG's sales retreat at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, CA: 35
U.S. GDP in 2009, its worst single-year performance since 1946: -2.4 percent
Annualized GDP in the fourth quarter of 2009, the highest quarterly rate since 2003: +5.7 percent
Of 11 IPOs since December 2009, the number that have priced within their expected ranges: 2
Number of passengers who boarded commercial airlines in 2009 for intra-Asia-Pacific travel: 647 million
Number of passengers for intra-North America (U.S. and Canada) travel: 638 million
Number of U.S. airports that have lost commercial air service since 2007: 96
Rank of Exxon Mobil, the largest corporation in America, among the top federal lobbyists in the U.S.: first
Rank of Pfizer in 2009, which wasn't even in the top 20 in 2008: fourth
Ratio of pharmaceutical sales reps in the U.S. to individuals with prescriptions in 2009: 1:8
Estimated ratio by 2015: 1:12
Ratio of registered drug-company lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to every member of congress: 2:1
Average amount spent on congressional lobbying, per day, by U.S. health-care companies in 2009: $1.5 million
Factor by which an index of 36 companies that are sponsoring the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver outperformed the broad global market in 2009: 20 percent
Number of gold medals Canada won the last time it hosted the Winter Olympics (Calgary, 1988): 0
Average consumer spending on home entertainment and media (excluding land and cell telephones) in 2009: $997.07
Change in newsstand sales for 500 consumer magazines in the U.S. in the last half of 2009 from a year earlier: -9.1%
Change in sales of Newsweek and Time, respectively: -41.3%, -34.9%
Change in sales of American Rifleman, published by the National Rifle Association: +20.2%
Rank of U.S. on the global individualism scale, which measures societal rewards for individual vs. collective performance: first
Minimum number of karaoke singers in the Philippines murdered after they sang Frank Sinatra's “My Way:” 6
U.S. government debt as a percentage of GDP (2009): 85%
Of Japan, and China, respectively: 116%, 20%
Number of self-employed workers in the U.S. (2007): 21 million
Number of executives at Wall Street banks who have been tried on criminal charges related to the financial crisis: 2
Number of acquitted: 2
Sources: 1 Wall Street Journal; 2-3 Commerce Department; 4 Wall Street Journal; 5-7 International Air Transport Association; 8-11 Teredata, WSJ; 12-13 Center for Responsive Politics; 14 Bloomberg; 15 International Olympic Committee, Bloomberg; 16 Census Bureau; 17-19 Audit Bureau of Circulation; 20 IBM, Prof. Geert Hofstede; 21-23 New York Times; 24 Census Bureau, National Association for the Self Employed; 25-26 Harpers, New York Times
