Asymmetrical Information

The "Top 100 Entities" list does not include private companies. For example, Cargill, (according to hoovers.com) with 2003 sales of $59.894 billion, would be between Sony and Pakistan on the list.

Nor does it include individual US states.

delectation, not delection.

Interesting that, while there are quite a few US companies on the list, there are also quite a few Japanese. European companies, while present, seem to be less prevalent. (I have to admit, I've only looked over the list, not counted them.)

In addition, it's interesting that most of the major auto and oil companies are on there, but so are several large insurers and computer companies. Kroger struck me as most dissimilar from the rest (aren't they a grocery chain??).

A previous commentator's observation about Cargill is also interesting---how many other economic entities are out there, w/ very little in the way of public knowledge or information?

I'm more interested in the Two Things list. Particularly, I take issue with this one:

"The Two Things about Binary Systems:
One: 0
Two: 1"

Obviously, it should read:

"The Two Things about Binary Systems:
One: 1
Two: 10"

:-)

I was glad to see New Zealand ranked above Fiat.

I'm not sure why.

Doesn't this list double count? I mean, GM, Wal-Mart et. al. sales are presumably included in the GDP of the United States.

Brian, you're making the common mistake of trying to convert "0 indexed" to "1 indexed" systems. The original phrasing is funny because it doesn't do that and highlights the "contradiction".

Good catch, none the less.

Another problem with the top-100 list (nice catch on the double-counting, J-Prusi.) GDP for a country for a year is essentially value added/created. GM's sales aren't an equivalent measure, are they? Surely it should be some measure of the value added by GM (for example, excluding their raw materials costs). No?

0) Brian and Tom:

1) I am saying two things.

2) A=A

3) Hippies smell bad

4) much hilarity ensues in the philosophy departments of universities around the nation

5) Fencepost errors make a lot of money for software consultants like me

6) I am probably overstating the point made in (4)

Seems to me that GDP corresponds more closely to *profits*, rather than sales. That is, something closer to the size of the value-add that the entity produces, rather than just the sheer amount of activity passing through.

I believe the US Postal Service, were it a private company, would rank ahead of GM (and, of course, a bunch of countries). It would certainly be way up there.

I LOVE the 2 things!

here's one:

2thingsabout baseball:

1) good pitching always beats good hitting, and vice versa
2) baseball can be summed up in one word: 'you never know!' (Joaquin Andujar)

JonofAtlanta: Don't forget Yogi: "It ain't over 'til it's over." That's baseball in a nutshell.

The two things about commenting on blogs:

1. Friendliness is the best way to get a meaningful response

2. Fuck you (liberal/conservative) cocksucker Nazis!

The numbers on country GDP seem to be pretty far off. For example, it has China ranked 7th with only 1.15 trillion dollars as of 2000. However, according to the CIA Factbook, as of 2003 China was #2 with a GDP of well over 6 trillion:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

While I've never been very sold on all the recent talk of the Chinese economic 'boom' (All the figures come from a Communist regime. Doesn't anyone remember how (un-)reliable the USSR's figures were?), I would think that the CIA figures would be a bit more accurate than Fortune's.

In the course of preparing a business plan for a start-up bank, I came across the statistic that Orange County, California, all by itself has a GCP (C for county of course) of $127B. That would place it 34th on the list, between Saudi Arabia and Finland. That a single county would place that high (even if it is one of the strongest) tends to put overall US economic strength in perspective.
http://www.orangecounty.net/pdf/statistics.pdf

Re: Two Things

Sun Tzu's Two Keys to Victory:

1. Know Thyself.

2. Know Thy Enemy.

Re: Top 100 entities

I'm not sure what to make of a list that puts Mexico, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands above Russia. I think that shows the difficulty of coming up with a single number correlating with "importance".

Also, the double counting issue mentioned by J Prusi does confuse the comparison made by the list, right?

I suspect that World Bank is using exchange rates, while CIA uses purchasing power parity to adjust figures. That would explain the relative weakness of China on this list. For the record, PPP is more accurate. Using exchange rates underrates third world nations and companies. If we use their numbers for firms, but CIA GDPs, I'd say about 67 countries and 33 firms would show up on the list. All of the firms below the group from 77-80 would fall off the list. (CIA's 69th country, Guatamala (56.530 mil) beats Fortune's 32nd firm, Dai-Ichi Mutual Life(55.104 mil)) I suspect one or two firms would jump back on the list due to the difference between 2000 and 2003 data. The wild card is unlisted Chinese "corporations"; several of their armies and government and elite-controlled conglomerates have major assets and sales figures.

Jim Thomason's and Jane's links for data.

Also, I agree with those who say the figures aren't comparable. Purchases of supplies should be subtracted from gross figures for companies. I'd leave in wages and benefits. These are included in GDP, indirectly. Outsourced materials and labor would be like "imports" which should be subtracted off.

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