INfact

November 25 2009 by John Kador


Information begins with facts, which can be assembled to identify trends. Put it all together to derive knowledge. Presenting Chief Executive’s INfact.

  1. Number of CEOs who left their posts in September 2009, 25 percent fewer than the 140 CEO exits recorded in September 2008 | 105
  2. Number of consecutive months that CEO departures were lower than the same month the previous year | 7
  3. Number of financial sector CEO departures announced through September, including Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack and Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis | 87
  4. The number of billionaires in the world at the end of 2008, down from 1,125 a year earlier | 793
  5. Change in the average net worth of the billionaires | -23%
  6. Median spending on personal and home security for CEOs at the 100 largest publicly traded companies in 2008, up 123% from 2007 | $65,348
  7. Amount of Dell CEO Michael Dell’s security in 2008 | $1,164,625
  8. Number of federal securities class actions filed in 2008 | 222
  9. Ratio of the average pay of Fortune 500 CEOs to the pay of the top regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance  Corporation | 85:1
  10. Rank of Coca-Cola among Business Week’s 100 Best Global Brands, with a brand value of $69 million in 2009 | first
  11. Percentage gain and loss, respectively of Google, the biggest rand winner, and UBS, the biggest brand loser, since 2008 | +25, -50
  12. The annual fee United Airlines charges for the right to check two bags every time you fly United or United Express | $249
  13. Total baggage fee revenues for the top 10 U.S. airlines in 2Q 2009, up 275%from a year earlier | $669.6 million
  14. Amount of Energy Department loans to help car companies build more efficient vehicles | $8.5 billion
  15. Price of spot gold on October 14, 2009, a record high | $1,070.80
  16. Rise in membership in the Gold Prospectors Association of America from 2007 to 2008 | 93 percent
  17. Of 17,413 outplacement recipients who were laid off between June 2008 and June 2009, the number who were rehired by the employer that had previously laid them off | 3,134
  18. Last year in which the unemployment rate in what is now Silicon Valley was as high as it is today | 1949
  19. Percentage of teenage workers currently employed | 29
  20. Number of years since recordkeeping began in 1948 in which this percentage has been as low | 0
  21. Amount that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), a member of the House Banking Committee, lost in a Ponzi stock scam between 2000 and 2005 | $34 million
  22. Number of video obituaries The New York Times has ready to post, as of July 31, 2009 | 30
  23. Nightly rate that one San Diego hotel charges for a “Survivor” room, which lacks a bed, towels and toilet paper | $19
  24. Percentage below asking price that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner sold his California home in August 2009 | 36
  25. Number of people following David Allen (gtdguy) on Twitter as of October 22, 2009 | 1,188,073
  26. Damages sought, in a defamation suit, by a Chicago landlord from a tenant who complained about mold via Twitter | $50,000
  27. Percentage of U.S. healthcare spending that goes to treating conditions caused by obesity | 9
  28. Average number by which Americans underestimate the total calories in a hamburger and fries | 463
  29. Estimated number of Americans who die each year as a result of preventable medical errors | 98,000
  30. Percentage of Americans who think the government should “stay out of Medicare” | 39
  31. Estimated reduction in overall healthcare costs if significant medical malpractice reform is enacted | 2.13%
  32. Number of condominium foreclosures January–July 2009, a 41%increase over the same period in 2008 | 228,339
  33. Percent of existing home sales that are short-sale transactions | 12
  34. Number of states facing budget gaps that exceed 20 percent of their GDP | 14
  35. Number that voted for John McCain/Sarah Palin in 2008 | 2
  36. Percent of rats the U.S. government eradicated on Alaska’s Rat Island | 100%
  37. Number of bald eagles it poisoned in the process | 41
  38. Change in Alaska’s oil output from its 1988 peak of 2 million barrels a day | -66%
  39. Change in oil production in North Dakota in 2007, more than any other state | +17%
  40. Amount bid by hot dog vendor Pasang Sherpa to have food carts in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located on a stretch of Fifth Avenue with no eateries. (His cart was evicted two weeks later for nonpayment.) | $642,702.19

John Kador can be contacted at jkador@jkador.com

Sources: 1–3 Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.; 4–5 Forbes; 6–7 Equilar, Redwood Shores, CA; 8 Stanford Law School/Cornerstone Research; 9 Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC; 10-11 BusinessWeek; 12–13 United Airlines, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; 14 U.S. Energy Department; 15 New York Mercantile Exchange; 16 Gold Prospectors Association of America; 17 Wright Management, Philadelphia, PA; 18–20 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; 21 Office of Alan Grayson, Orlando, FL; 22 The New York Times; 23 Wagstaff Worldwide, Inc., Los Angeles, CA; 24 Coldwell Banker, Los Angeles, CA; 25 Twitter; 26 Cook Country Clerk of the Circuit Court, Chicago, IL; 27 RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC; 28 Villanova School of Business, Villanova, PA; 29 National Institute of Medicine; 30 Public Policy Polling, Raleigh, NC; 31 Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; 32 RealtyTrac; 33 National Association of Realtors; 34–35 The New York Times; 36–37 Harpers; 38–39 Forbes; 40 The New York Times.