Some Facts & Predictions to Make you Think...
Total world cross-border trade as a percentage of global GDP
1990: 18%
2015 (estimated): 30%
Number of regional trade agreements
1990: 50
2005: 250
Computational capability of an Intel processor (measured in
instructions per second)
1971: 60,000
2005: 10,800,000,000
Multiple by which e-mail traffic has grown from 1997 to 2005: 215
Number of US tax returns prepared in India
2003: 25,000
2005: 400,000
Combined market cap of top 150 mega-institutions
1994: $4 trillion
2004: $11 trillion
Total capital under management by private equity firms in 2003
in the United States and Europe: $1 trillion
Market cap of the NYSE in 2003: $11 trillion
Growth rate of the total wealth controlled by millionaires in
China from 1986 to 2001: 600%
Estimated number of Chinese households to achieve European income
levels by 2020 (assuming real income grows at 8 percent annually): 100 million
Total number of workers in China: 750 million
Number employed in China's state-owned companies: 375 million
Year when the income gap in the United States between the wealthiest
5% and the bottom 10% was the widest ever recorded: 2004
Part of national GDP spent on the public sector in the United
Kingdom in 2004: 20%
Number of major violent conflicts
1991: 58
2005: 22
Number of coal-fired power plants China plans to build by 2012: 562
Estimated year China will overtake the United States as the number-one
carbon emitter: 2025
Estimated year CO2 levels will hit 500 parts per million: 2050
Years since CO2 levels last hit 500 parts per million: 50 million
Average years it takes a CO2 molecule, once produced, to degrade:
100
Global CEOs who think overregulation is a threat to growth: 61%
Probability that a company in an industry's top revenue quartile
will not be there in five years: 30 percent
Source: Mckinsey Quarterly
