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March 1999 · Harper's index · Previous · Next   PDF

Harper’s Index

Percentage by which Iraq's oil sales last year fell short of the maximum allowed under U.N. sanctions: 22¹

Rank of the U.S. among countries that bought the most oil from Iraq last year: 1²

Percentage change in Iraq's oil sales since 1997: +45³

Percentage change in total oil sales of other OPEC countries since then: -35⁴

Ratio of the price of a gallon of crude oil to the wholesale price of a gallon of Evian water: 1:11⁵

Percentage change in gasoline prices in Nigeria after government price caps were lifted last December: +127⁶

Estimated percentage of Indonesian businesses that are in bankruptcy: 70⁷

Number of ships ordered from Japan's four largest shipbuilders in 1998's last quarter: 0⁸

Average hourly outflow from Brazil's currency reserves on January 13 and 14, after the real was devalued: $214,000,000⁹

Size of the business loan given Amazon.com last April after 11 consecutive months without a profit: $275,000,000¹⁰

Percentage change since 1996 in the value of initial public offerings of stock in Silicon Valley companies: -45¹¹

Chance that an IBM-compatible personal computer made since 1997 has Y2K flaws: 1 in 2¹²

Keys required, along with the alt key, to type the euro symbol on new Windows-compatible keyboards sold in the U.S.: 0,1,2,8¹³

Date and time of the annual pi celebration held at San Francisco's Exploratorium: 3/14, 1:59¹⁴

Number of pies brought to last year's event: 15¹⁵

Number of professional-style kitchens in the home Mike Tyson is attempting to sell: 7¹⁶

Amount Fortune magazine estimates that Michael Jordan's NBA career has contributed to the U.S. economy: $10,000,000,000¹⁷

Minimum amount John Gotti Jr. told a federal judge last fall that he required each month for private guards: $21,000¹⁸

Severance pay received by Viacom CEO Frank Biondi after he was fired by the company in 1996: $15,000,000¹⁹

Severance pay Frank Biondi received last year after he was fired by Universal Pictures: $30,000,000²⁰

Average amount each American living in poverty would receive if 1998's budget surplus were divided among them: $1,967²¹

Ratio of federal emergency spending appropriated for 1999 to the average appropriation in the last five years: 5:2²²

Percentage of America's nuclear power plants that were found to have “serious security lapses” last year: 47²³

Number of people detained or evacuated from buildings in California last December due to anonymous anthrax threats: 3,000²⁴

Number of times one New Jersey high school was evacuated in the last school year due to bomb threats: 30²⁵

Number of American children crushed to death by television sets since 1990: 28²⁶

Estimated chances that a U.S. child diagnosed with leukemia will be in remission five years later: 4 in 5²⁷

Estimated chance that an Iraqi child diagnosed with leukemia will live that long: 0²⁸

Ratio of Cuba's infant mortality rate to that of the U.S.: 1:1²⁹

Ratio of the number of doctors per capita in the U.S. to the number of doctors per capita in Cuba: 1:2³⁰

Number of virgins who have bought an insurance policy against immaculate conception next year: 10,113³¹

Percentage of the 2,397 surveillance cameras monitoring public spaces in New York City that are privately owned: 89³²

Number by which emigrants from the U.S. to Ireland between 1995 and 1998 exceeded those from Ireland to the U.S.: 4,300³³

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SEE ALSO: Anthrax; Brazil; Business; California; Cookery; Crime; Cuba; Death; Disease; Economics; Education; Energy; Finance; Freedom; The Internet; Iraq; Ireland; Japan; The Media; Medicine; New Jersey; New York City; Nigeria; Oil; Poverty; Religion; Science; Sex; Sport; Technology; Television; Terrorism; Wealth

Response: June 1999, page 7

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