Percentage of business leaders from both U.S. domestic and multinational companies who said they would be willing to accept the repeal of certain tax incentives in exchange for a lower overall tax rate, according to a survey by KPMG: 80
Source: KPMG LLP.
Percentage of U.S. adults who have gone shopping or purchased something solely because they were in a bad mood, otherwise known as "retail therapy," according to a CouponCabin.com survey: 24
Percentage of women who said they've shopped in pursuit of retail therapy: 31
Percentage of those who have gone shopping for retail therapy who said they felt happy afterward: 33
Source: CouponCabin.
Ranks of Amazon, Target, Best Buy and J.C. Penney, as the leading dot-com e-tailers as measured by website visits and searches, according to information from Experian Marketing Services: 1, 2, 3, 4
Ranks of Uggs, Kindle Fire, iPad, Amazon Kindle and Barbie on the list of top-searched retail products: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: Experian Public Relations.
Percentage of employed Americans who believe there is still room to grow in their current careers, according to a survey from University of Phoenix: 89
Percentage of Americans, not currently in school full-time, who plan to return to school at some point in the future: 41
Percentage of these education-seekers who expect to do so in the next two years: 64
Source: Kelton Research.
Percentage of teenagers who have seen their home or a friend's home damaged as a result of hosting a party, according to research from Allianz Your Cover Insurance: 56
Percentage of teenagers who confessed they had covered up damage by enlisting friends to help or they hid it themselves: 19
Percentage who have lied to their parents: 32
Source: YourCoverInsurance.co.uk.
Ranks of Denzel Washington, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Mark Wahlberg on the list of the top money-making stars of 2012 in Quigley Publishing Co.'s 81st annual poll of motion picture exhibitors: 1, 2, 3, 4
Source: Quigley Publishing Co.
Percentage of U.S. parents of children ages 6 to 17 who want to choose a New Year's resolution for their child or children, according to a survey for K12 Inc.: 87
Ranks of clean up their room more often (47 percent), be more engaged in school (33 percent) and have healthier eating habits (33 percent) on the list of resolutions that parents would choose for their kids: 1, 2, 3
Source: K12 Inc.
Ranks of Blue Ivy (Beyonce, Jay Z) and Lukensia (Jillian Michaels, Heidi Rhoades) on the list of the worst baby girl celebrity names of 2012, according to BabyNames.com: 1, 2
Ranks of Lion (Alex O'Loughlin, Malia Jones) and Kash Kade (Kim Zolciak, Kroy Biermann) on the list of the worst baby boy celebrity names of 2012: 1, 2
Source: BabyNames.com.
Percentage of global citizens who indicate they "definitely would" consider traveling to another country to receive medical or dental care if the cost were significantly lower in that country, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Reuters News: 18
Percentage who say they "probably would": 36
Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.
Estimated amount of money that international students and their families contributed to the U.S. economy during the 2011-2012 academic year, according to a NAFSA report: $21.8 billion
Number of American students studying abroad during the 2010-2011 academic year, up by 1.25 percent from 270,604 in 2009-2010, according to figures released by the Institute of International Education: 273,996
Source: NAFSA.
Idle Thought
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." -- Voltaire
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)