INfact

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

1. Total value of the 392 retention bonuses paid to employees of AIG Financial Products between December and March 15 | $218 million
2. Median bonus | $248,750
3. Number of employees receiving less than $200,000 | 19
4. Total value of employee bonuses awarded by Wal-Mart in 2008 | $933.6 million
5. Average bonus | $933.60
6. Cash award paid by American Express to some consumers as an inducement to close their credit card accounts | $300
7. Number of days a week that the Detroit Free Press will offer home delivery of the newspaper starting March 30 | 4
8. Average time, in months, after the beginning of severe economic downturn that economic growth resumes | 24
9. Average time, in months, that unemployment recovers to pre-downturn levels | 60
10. Number of months it would take for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to reach its October 2, 2007, high of 14,165, assuming an average annualized gain of 6 percent | 120
11. Estimated amount by which the U.S. GDP increases for each additional dollar of infrastructure spending | $1.59
12. Amount of increase for each additional dollar of food stamps | $1.73
13. For each additional dollar of tax cuts | $1.03
14. Number of densely packed PowerPoint slides that G.E. Capital president Michael A. Neal went through in a fivehour presentation in March 2009 | 170
15. Amount U.S. drug companies spent on R&D in 2008 | $128 billion
16. Number of new drugs approved by the FDA in 2008 | 8
17. Purchase price that the celebrated but bankrupt West Virginia Greenbriar Resort was willing to be acquired for by Marriott International | $130 million
18. Chance of a tax audit for taxpayers with incomes above $1 million in fiscal 2008 | 1 in 18
19. Audit rate in 2007 | 1 in 16
20. Average amount of additional taxes demanded by the IRS after a face-to-face audit | $198,000
21. Change in real estate prices in 20 metropolitan areas in January 2009 compared to a year earlier, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index | -19%
22. Number of cities that showed record annual rates of decline | 13
23. Number that showed month-to-month improvements | 0
24. Rank of U.S. on the Top Ten list of “innovation-friendly” nations | 7
25. Rank of Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland, respectively | 1, 2, 3
26. Percentage change between 1898 and 1996 in the number of democracies worldwide | +71
27. Percentage change since 1996 | 0
28. Estimated number of people in China who can read and write English | 300 million
29. Number in the U.S. | 252 million
30. Level of organizational confidence reported by employees in India, the country with the highest level of confidence | 82%
31. Level in Japan, the lowest | 48%
32. Level in the U.S. | 74%
33. Number of U.S. patents issued in 2008 | 157,774
34. Number of patent applications pending | 1.2 million
35. Average number of months the Patent Office requires to move a patent from filing to approval/termination | 32.2
36. Percentage of worldwide patents awarded to U.S. businesses in 2008 | 49%
37. Time, in months, that the CEO office at Sears has been empty | 14
38. Percent of the annual $698 million budget of the New York City Department of Transportation represented by fines collected in 2008 from parking violators | 89
39. Estimated percentage of North American businesses that will eliminate desk telephones—up from 4% in 2008—by 2012 | 23%
40. Factor by which workers in open-plan offices are more likely to have high blood pressure that those in walled offices | 49%
41. Minimum number of Wall Streets, including variants such as Wall Street Road, in America | 955
42. Number of customers who follow JetBlue Airlines’ twitter feed | 203,935