Miscellaneous.

• Author: Rees, Matthew
• Position: Just the Facts: TIE's Executive News Service

"The share of U.S. company profits from overseas business has ballooned from 26 percent to a record 37 percent in the past two years."

--BusinessWeek, November 14

"The total outstanding notional amount of financial derivatives, according to the Bank for International Settlements, is $684 trillion (as of June 2008)--over twelve times the world's nominal gross domestic product."

--Wall Street Journal, November 14

"Global GDP has never fallen in any year since the 1930s Depression. Its worst years since then were 1982 and 1991, with growth of 0.9 percent and 1.5 percent respectively."

--The Economist, November 7

"In 1947, the [financial] sector accounted for 2.3 percent of United States gross domestic product. By 2007, it had grown to 8.1 percent."

--New York Times, November 3

"Few Americans know that the United States ranks only 20th among countries in openness to capital flows, 21st on low trade barriers, and 35th on absence of distortions from taxes and subsidies, according to the 2008 Global Competitiveness Report. We are fast becoming the kind of distorted economy we have long criticized."

--BusinessWeek, October 31

"Since 1950, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has gained 15 percent, on average, a year when the unemployment rate has been higher than 6 percent, according to Ned Davis Research. That compares with gains of 5.2 percent a year when unemployment was between 4.3 percent and 6 percent and just 2.1 percent a year when unemployment was 4.3 percent and below."

--Wall Street Journal, October 29

"Altogether, big Asian investors have spent about $78 billion buying stakes in non-Asian financial institutions since the beginning of last year, according to research firm Dealogic. For 2006, the figure was just $6.6 billion."

--Wall Street Journal, October 16

"Between January 2000 and April 2007, the stock of global foreign currency reserves rose by $5,200 billion. Thus three-quarters of all the foreign...