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Rep. IndexRep. 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. Presenting the Registered Rep. Index. Percentage by which the $750 billion bailout exceeds the cost of the entire New Deal: 33 Total paper losses

John Kador

January 1, 2009

3 Min Read
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Compiled By John Kador

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.

  1. Percentage by which the $750 billion bailout exceeds the cost of the entire New Deal: 33

  2. Total paper losses in the portfolios of 175 chief executives from close of the company's most recent fiscal year through October 27, 2008: $52.3 billion

  3. Amount of paper loss represented by Warren Buffett: $15.9 billion

  4. Average total return (add dividends, subtract inflation) on S&P 500 since 1916: 6.7 percent

  5. Average stock market return per year for the 25-year period ending June 20, 1957, also the best 25-year average on record: 12.7 percent

  6. Average return for the subsequent 25 years, the worst on record: 2.2 percent

  7. Percent of consumers who always carry, or usually carry, a credit-card balance: 54.6

  8. Average U.S. state debt per capita: $1,053

  9. Average number of new federal crimes that Congress creates each year: 56

  10. Chance that a 411 call in the U.S. is handled by a federal prisoner: 1 in 136

  11. Average number of hours per week that an American and a Chinese person, respectively, spend shopping: 4, 10

  12. Share of U.S. banks that have tightened terms on loans to large and mid-size companies: 84

  13. Factor by which the amount of money borrowed by U.S. banks from the Fed in October 2008 exceeded what they borrowed six months earlier: 4,000

  14. Change in Netflix rentals of the Depression movie The Grapes of Wrath” from September 2008 to October 2008: 10 percent

  15. Change in sales rank on Barnes & Noble of The Great Crash of 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith for same period: 20,000

  16. Median price of a new home in the U.S. as of September 2008, the lowest since 2004: $218,400

  17. Rank of the U.S. as a free-market economy in terms of openness to capital flows, low trade barriers, and absence of distortions from taxes and subsidies, respectively: 20, 21 and 35

  18. Rank of Hong Kong on all three scales: 1

  19. Number of private companies with revenues over $1 billion that had IPOs in the past 12 months: 3

  20. Number in similar period last year: 15

  21. Number of S&P 500 stocks that experienced peak-to-trough drops of 50 percent or more in the 10 years ending in May — before the worst of the credit crisis hit: 347

  22. Percentage of Fortune 500 companies that own a web address in which their name is followed by “sucks.com”: 26

  23. Number of complaints filed by corporate whistleblowers with U.S. workplace safety officials since 2002: 1,288

  24. Number in which the government ruled in favor of the whistleblower: 17

  25. Value of loose change recovered at U.S. airport security checkpoints since 2005: $1,050,371

  26. Annual tuition at the Booth School at the University of Chicago, the number one business school, as ranked by Businessweek: $97,165

  27. Percentage of Americans who can name all of Santa's reindeer: 25

Sources: 1 Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library; 2-3 Steven Hall and Partners; 4-6 Fortune; 7 Bureau of Economic Analysis; 8 Standard and Poors; 9-10 Harpers; 11 McKinsey & Company; 12-13 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; 14 Netflix; 15 Barnes & Noble; 16 Commerce Department; 17-18 Global Competiveness Report; 19-20 Renaissance Capital; 21 SmartStops.net; 22 FairWinds Partners; 23-24 U.S. Department of Labor; 25 Department of Homeland Security; 26 Businessweek; 27 Harpers.

About the Author

John Kador

John Kador is a business author focused on leadership, finance, and technology.  He is the author of over 15 books and has been a contributing editor to Wealth Management since 1995.  He received an MS degree in public relations from The American University and a BA in English from Duke University.  He lives in Lewisburg, PA.  Contact him on his website, www.jkador.com.