WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Nov.15
What's
on the Agenda
For
Student Aid:
Average total tuition and fees at four-year private colleges increased
5.9% to $22,218 in the current academic year. The average undergraduate
leaves school more than $20,000 in debt, compared with about $16,000 in
1999-2000, according to an analysis of the Education Department's National
Postsecondary Student Aid study. In the last academic year, private
student lending amounted to about $17 billion in new loans, up more than
three times since 2001-02. Federal student loans originated in the
2005-2006 academic year totaled $69 billion
| In Medicaid, Private HMOs Take a Big, and Profitable, Role: Some 55 million poor and disabled Americans are covered by Medicaid, with an annual price tag topping $300 billion. Four of the biggest Medicaid HMOs -- WellCare, Centene, Molina Healthcare. and Amerigroup -- have a combined annual revenues of little over $10 billion. | $300B Medicaid Bill |
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U.S. Consumer-Spending Data Bolster Hopes for Holiday Sales: Sales at food and retail establishments rose to a seasonally adjusted $332 billion in October, up 0.4% from September and 6.5% from a year earlier, according to the Commerce Department. Higher spending at restaurants and drugstores helped to offset declines in sales of housing-related goods, such as building materials and furniture. Overall retail sales shrank 0.2% from September, but were up 4.5% from a year earlier. |
$332B Oct. Retail Sales |
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Drug Makers' Politics Produces a Bitter Pill: Since Election Day, drug stocks have gotten clobbered. Pfizer, Wyeth, Eli Lilly and Novartis stocks prices have dropped 5% or more; GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Johnson & Johnson are down 4% or more; and Bristol-Myers Squibb is down 3.5%. All together, they lost nearly $50 billion in market value by Democratic victories. |
$50B Drug Makers Market cap Loss |
| American Workers Have a Chance To Be Heard: America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year. | 1%-16% Income |
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Internet Ad Spending Is Set to Top '05 High: Internet advertising spending should reach $16 billion in 2006, which would eclipse last year's record of $12.5 billion, according to IAB. The IAB reported that the amount spent on Internet advertising from January to the end of September was $12.1 billion. |
$16B Internet Ad Spend |
| Cingular to Offer Cellphone Banking: Close to 45% of Internet users banked online in 2005, up from less than 15% in 1998, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. | 45% Online Banking |
| IBM to Fund Ideas Hatched in Contest With $100 Million: IBM plans to invest $100 million over the next two years to fund business ideas generated by a world-wide innovation contest, said IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano. The contest, "InnovationJam," involved contributions from 150,000 people from 104 countries, including employees of IBM and 67 of its client companies. IBM spends close to $6 billion on research, development, and engineering annually. | $6B IBM on R&D |
| Wikipedia Is a Hit in China As Ban Is Lifted: The number of new articles posted daily has increased 75% from the week before, with the total now surpassing 100,000, according to the Wikipedia foundation. China's Internet population now numbers more than 120 million. | 120M Chinese Online |
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WSJ By The Numbers - Metrics 2.0 |
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