For the Chinese economy to achieve 8% GDP growth over the next decade, China would need to double its share of global trade.

IMF

From 2000 to 2008, African economies grew at twice the pace of the 1980s and 1990s.

MCKINSEY GLOBAL INSTITUTE

Just 59% of China's imports came from rich countries in 2008, but this share rose sharply to 66% in 2009. Likewise, India obtained 42% of its imports from rich countries in 2008, but last year this figure increased to 47%.

THE ECONOMIST

In 2009, China produced about 36% of all solar panels made worldwide, taking the lead from Europe, which had an 18% share. Japan was third at 16% and North America, primarily the United States, was fourth at 8%.

PHOTON CONSULTING LLC

Over the past decade, 227 million people around the world moved out of poverty. However, the number of slum dwellers in developing countries' urban centers actually increased by more than 50 million.

UNITED NATIONS

Of every dollar of U.S. real income growth that was generated between 1976 and 2007, 58 cents went to the top 1% of households.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Interest and dividends make up less than 1% of a U.S. median family's income.

FINANCIAL TIMES

Layoffs in construction have accounted for 27% of U.S. private-sector job losses since 2007. If one adds loan officers, real-estate agents, architects and landscapers, then housing-related layoffs account for at least one-third of the total.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

At $1.2 trillion annually, U.S. corporate profits are now higher than they were at the height of the bubble.

WASHINGTON POST

Under the Obama Administration, U.S. Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget — and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of 2009.

WASHINGTON POST

German exports came to $1.1 trillion in 2009 — roughly $125 billion more than the United States exported, though there are just 82 million Germans to 310 million Americans.

WASHINGTON POST

Since 1981, France has been unable to balance its budget — even in good times with healthy economic growth.

FRENCH COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

The UK government's unfunded civil service pension liabilities — the contractual claims on government accumulated to date by civil servants — amount to £770 billion. That is 58% of the UK's GDP.

UK GOVERNMENT ACTUARY DEPARTMENT

Because there is no extradition treaty between Afghanistan and Britain, Afghan officials who are suspected of corruption and managed to get to the United Kingdom are essentially in a safe haven.

WASHINGTON POST

China has 27 million students in technical colleges and universities — the most in the world.

NEW YORK TIMES

In mid-2010, the Bank of Japan appointed its first female branch manager in its 128-year history, Japan Airlines Corporation announced its first female pilot captain — and East Japan Railway now has female station masters in Tokyo for the first time.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

Since the beginning of this century, Vietnam has held third place in average annual GDP growth, just behind China and India, and has been most successful in poverty reduction. Vietnam has also become a major exporter, ranking 40th in the world.

YALE GLOBAL

Out of more than 170 million Pakistanis, fewer than 2% pay income tax, making Pakistan's revenue from taxes among the lowest in the world — a little below Sierra Leone's as a ratio of tax to GDP.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

GM’S PENSION WOES Even after the U.S. government's rescue of General Motors, the company's pension fund is the largest private-sector pension plan in the world, with roughly $100 billion of liabilities. The assets in GM's U.S. pension fund are still officially expected to return 8.5% a year — even though returns in markets are much lower. The company's annual payments to its U.S. pensioners amount to $9.3 billion. On U.S. fund assets of $85 billion, that requires a return of 10.9%. General Motors had 531,500 pensioners in the United States to 87,500 active employees. In other words, each worker has to support six pensioners, not counting the 83,500 who have left the company and have yet to retire. GM, like British Airways or BT in the United Kingdom, is in economic terms a hedge fund, with its operations a mere sideline. SOURCE: FINANCIAL TIMES

"The relentless promotion of homeownership as the embodiment of the American Dream has outlived its usefulness."

ROBERT J. SAMUELSON, NEWSWEEK COLUMNIST

Afghanistan has a virtual lock on world opium production. Extensive inventories, estimated at two years' worldwide consumption, preclude shortages. Retail demand for the heroin produced from Afghan opium is only slightly sensitive to export prices, because most of its retail price consists of distributors' mark-ups — rather than the raw material price.

FINANCIAL TIMES