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October 2006 · Harper's index · Previous · Next   PDF

Harper’s Index

Portion of U.S. banking assets in 1996 that were controlled by the ten largest U.S. banks: 1/4 ¹



Portion today: 1/2 ²

Average salary package last year among all full-time employees of Goldman Sachs, including support staff: $521,000 ³

Chances of a recession in 2007, according to a chief economist of Merrill Lynch: 2 in 5 ⁴

Number of the last six years that fine-art prices have outperformed the S&P 500: 5 ⁵

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of consumer complaints about harassment by U.S. debt-collection agencies: +564 ⁶

Number of Americans whose past-due accounts the IRS will turn over to private debt collectors by 2008: 350,000 ⁷

Portion of the IRS's staff of estate-tax auditors that the government plans to eliminate this year: 2/5 ⁸

Salary of the White House's new Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641 ⁹

Factor by which the jobless rate among veterans under 25 of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars exceeds the U.S. average: 3 ¹⁰

Percentage change since 2004 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite records of “serious criminal misconduct”: +54 ¹¹

Estimated total number of people killed in Middle East wars since 1945: 1,640,000 ¹²

Rank of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, respectively, among Lebanon's top employers: 1, 2 ¹³

Days beforehand that Deep Purple had to cancel the July 27 Lebanon date on its “Rapture of the Deep” tour: 4 ¹⁴

Hours after the start of its war against Hezbollah that Israel's army chief sold $32,000 of his stock holdings: 3 ¹⁵

Percentage of Americans in July who said the U.S. had “a responsibility to try to resolve” the Israeli-Arab conflict: 33 ¹⁶

Percentage of Americans who think that the president has “a lot” of control over the price of gasoline: 63 ¹⁷

Number of the 66 U.S. senators favoring the anti-flag-burning amendment in June who signed up as its named sponsors: 59 ¹⁸

Minimum amount of USDA farm subsidies since 2000 that have been paid out to people who do not farm: $1,300,000,000 ¹⁹

Minimum value of “small business” contracts given out by the U.S. last year that went to Fortune 500 firms: $1,200,000,000 ²⁰

Percentage of funds used to get Pennsylvania's Green Party Senate candidate on the ballot that came from right-wingers: 100 ²¹

Number of U.S. coal-burning plants on which construction has begun or been completed since 2005: 153 ²²

Energy, in megawatt hours, saved over thirty-five years by a bicycle rider who does not drive a car: 109 ²³



Portion of these savings that will be used up over the extra years the biker will live: 9/10 ²⁴

Percentage change since 1990 in the number of elderly Americans: +16 ²⁵



Percentage change in Nevada: +106 ²⁶

Chances that a U.S. retiree says that he or she was forced to stop working earlier than planned: 2 in 5 ²⁷

Estimated chance, according to new fossil research, that a Tyrannosaurus rex lived to full maturity: 1 in 50 ²⁸

Ratio of the estimated number of tigers living in the wild to the number living as U.S. pets: 1:1 ²⁹

Estimated amount that a farmed tiger could fetch if sold for parts, according to an Indian free-market think tank: $120,000 ³⁰

Amount the Alaska Zoo paid last year to build a treadmill for its 8,000-pound elephant: $150,000 ³¹



Number of times the elephant has used the treadmill so far: 0 ³²

Factor by which the number of attacks on U.S. forest rangers last year exceeded the number in 1995: 14 ³³

Estimated amount that tourism will add to Rwanda's economy next year: $26,000,000 ³⁴



Number of “genocide sites” that the country has opened up to visitors: 35 ³⁵

Estimated number of minutes of cocoa picking required to make a treat-sized Hershey chocolate bar: 1 ³⁶

Estimated number of people worldwide who die each year from too much sun: 60,000 ³⁷

Percentage of tea drunk in America that is served iced: 85 ³⁸

Percentage of volunteers in a four-year psychedelic-mushroom study who said they experienced “strong or extreme fear”: 31 ³⁹



Percentage who described the experience as “among the five most meaningful” in their lives: 67 ⁴⁰

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SEE ALSO: Afghanistan; Agriculture; Alaska ; Animal; United States Army; Art; Bush Administration; Business; Drugs; Economics; Energy; Entertainment; Folly; Food; Genocide; Bush, George W.; Hezbollah; Internal Revenue Service; India; Iraq; Israel; Labor; Lebanon; Nevada; Obesity; Pennsylvania; Pollution; Rwanda; Science; United States Senate; Transportation; United States of America; War

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