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INfact: Business Facts for May 2010

April 28 2010 by John Kador

1. Number of companies in 2009 with accounting problems bad enough to require restatement: 674
2. In 2006: 1,795
3. Average 2009 reduction in reported earnings, per restatement: $4.6 million
4. In 2006: $23.5 million
5. Increase in total salaries and bonuses paid to UBS top executives from 2008 to 2009: 892%
6. Decrease in compensation for members of the UBS board of directors for the same period: 23%
7. Number of consecutive years Washington Post Co. Chairman and CEO Donald Graham has kept his annual base pay at $400,000 19
8. Of 123 countries and territories, the number Standard & Poor’s has rated AAA: 18
9. Amount of available vacant office space in Manhattan, in numbers of football fields: 920
10. Average decrease in office rents for Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, respectively, from 2008 to 2009: 27%, 21%, 40%
11. Decrease in sales per square foot, a closely watched retail marker, at The Gap, the country’s largest apparel retailer, from 1999 to 2009: 40%
12. Increase in total mall square footage for the company, which  also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, for same period: 62%
13. Increase in total net worth of Americans in 4Q 2009: 1.3%, to $54.2 trillion
14. Amount by which total net worth needs to increase to reach prerecession peak of $65.9 trillion: 21%
15. Number of people the Bible enumerates as having been killed in the name of God when specific numbers are given, not including Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or plagues and famines: 2,391,421
16. Number of killings attributed to Satan: 10
17. Potential fine Department of Transportation can levy against an airline if a Boeing 737 is stuck on the tarmac for three hours and every seat is filled at a rate of $27,500 per passenger: $4,097,500
18. Number of airlines that have filed for a temporary exemption from the DOT regulation: 7
19. Number of Americans awaiting kidney transplants who died in 2009 because not enough kidneys are donated: 7,300
20. Estimated market price for a human kidney, to eliminate the shortage of donors: $15,000
21. Amount all U.S. banks charged in 2009 for overdraft fees: $38.9 billion
22. Portion of this revenue potentially at risk because of new Federal Reserve consumer protection regulations: 100%
23. Percentage of American workplaces providing free coffee to employees: 33
24. Percentage of workers who describe the coffee as tolerable: 50
25. Percentage increase since 2008 in the average speed of an Internet connection worldwide: 13
26. Percentage decrease in the U.S.: 2.4
27. Rank of U.S. among nations in internet connection speed: 18
28. Average American monthly cost of cable, phone and Internet service: $83
29. Monthly Comcast charge for all possible features and options: $708
30. Estimated combined salaries of the ten top actor nominees at the 2010 Oscars, including winner Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart: $20 million
31. Salary paid best actress Julia Roberts in 2001 for Erin Brokovich: $20 million
32. Estimated cost to taxpayers of TARP, adjusted for inflation $117 billion
33. Cost to taxpayers of bailout in the 1980s savings and loan crisis: $124.6 billion
34. Number of senior human resources executives at the 100 largest U.S. public companies not reporting directly to CEO: 15
35. Number of stolen works of art by Pablo Picasso, favorite artist of art thieves: 659