• U.S.

Numbers: Oct. 8, 2007

2 minute read
DEPARTMENT

GENERAL MOTORS STRIKE

73,000

Number of employees who participated in a national two-day United Auto Workers strike against GM, the first since 1970

$50 billion

Estimated cost of future health-care liabilities that GM could take off its books in a proposed four-year deal, which would let the company use its overflowing pension fund to help retirees cover increased health-care costs

IRAQ

$500,000

Amount the Iraq war costs per minute, according to a joint analysis by a Nobel-prizewinning economist and a Harvard scholar, who noted that the amount spent on the war each day could pay for health care for 423,529 children

$50 billion

Amount the Bush Administration plans to increase its 2008 budget for military operations abroad

STEROIDS

124

Number of people arrested in 27 U.S. states for illegally distributing human-growth hormone and other bodybuilding drugs in the largest steroid raid in U.S. history

242

Number of kilograms of raw steroid powder seized since 2006 that was made in China, which U.S. authorities say is the main supplier of illicit performance-enhancing substances

RICHES

$1.3 billion

Minimum net worth of the 400 richest Americans, listed by Forbes, up from $1 billion in 2005

82

Number of U.S. billionaires who did not make the list. Of the 45 newbies, almost half made their fortune in hedge funds or private-equity investments

Sources: Bloomberg (2); Think Progress; New York Times; Washington Post (2); AP (2)

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