by Gary Hoover | Jul 17, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
This week we present our animated chart of the largest employers in America among our big, public companies. In the last three weeks, we have published similar charts based on revenues, on profits, and on market capitalization, all of which can be found by clicking...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 8, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 3, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
(Our original post listed this as the 25 highest profit companies but should have said 20 highest profit companies.) Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 26, 2022 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 16, 2021 | Data, Data, Demography and Geography, Newsletters
This week we present another of our popular animated charts. In this one, we show the populations of the states of the United States from the Census, every ten years from 1790 through 2020. The list is long, including all fifty ultimate states. The data...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 17, 2021 | Data, Data, Newsletters, Transportation
The United States airline system, one of the technological and business wonders of the twentieth century, evolved in the 1920s and 1930s. With early subsidies from the Post Office for carrying mail, airplanes began connecting US cities. With successive air...
by Gary Hoover | May 12, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Last week, the Census Bureau published their annual estimates of population, as of July 1, 2020. Population trends underly all economic activity, so we study that data as soon as it is released. The fastest growing and shrinking cities and metropolitan areas...
by Gary Hoover | May 6, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Few business subjects fascinate people as much as the very wealthy. Our obsession with celebrity goes back centuries but seems to have accelerated in recent decades. Forbes produced its first list of the richest Americans in 1982 and later started publishing it...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 15, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
One of the most significant shifts in American business over the last several decades has been the shrinking number of big corporations headquartered in New York City. At first, some moved “upstate” to the New York suburbs and to Connecticut. But more...
by Gary Hoover | Apr 1, 2021 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
A careful study of this week’s list will show you the huge American industries which once dominated stock markets, employment, and community life, but which are not as important in the age of Amazon and Google. Our readers know we love lists. There are few other...
by Gary Hoover | Mar 24, 2021 | Articles, Data, Data, Newsletters, Retailing
The $6.3 trillion US retailing industry has evolved continuously since the end of the Civil War, when the first chain grocery stores and first department stores began to develop. This chart, based on data from the US Census, shows how the different types of...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 18, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Fifty-seven years ago, meatpacking giant Swift was the 15th largest public company in the world. Today that 15th spot is held by American health insurer UnitedHealth. Apple sits in the 12th position formerly held by Texaco, now part of Chevron. ...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 20, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. On Market Capitalization as a Measure of Size or Success Your history reporter has been studying big business for fifty-seven years (I started subscribing to Fortune magazine in 1963, when I was twelve years...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 30, 2020 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the companies which made...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 16, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the largest employers...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 2, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
“Last week we brought you an unprecedented animated chart of the Fortune 500 list since 1994. Here we go back another 40 years, when steel companies and meatpackers were still giants. Taken together, you can learn a lot from 65 years of history.” Last...
by Gary Hoover | Jun 25, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. The saga of American business in one chart! The fall of Enron, the rise of Apple and Amazon, the enduring legacy of John Rockefeller in Exxon and Chevron – see the years fly by! Below the two charts...
by Gary Hoover | Nov 14, 2019 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Data, Demography and Geography
Two weeks ago, we presented an animated chart showing the most popular American cities – the metropolitan areas which received the most domestic migrants in each year from 2010 through 2018. This week, we created an animated chart showing “the...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 4, 2019 | Business in General, Data
by Gary Hoover | Aug 15, 2019 | Articles, Data, Data, Demography and Geography, Newsletters
This week, we present more of our animated “bar race charts” made with Flourish.studio, in which you can see how change takes place over time. We have produced two versions, one for close study that takes five minutes and a very fast one that you can watch in...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 11, 2019 | Articles, Articles, Business in General, Data, Data, Demography and Geography
History lovers, Today we present something a little different….an animated chart showing the rise and fall of American cities. If you play (or replay) the graphic linked here, you will see the rise and fall of the thirty most populous metropolitan areas in the...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Data
The first Fortune 500 – 1954 Data set Source: Fortune Magazine 1954 The First Fortune 500 1954 Data (XLSX)
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Data, Data, Transportation
Here are estimates of the largest car makers in the early years of the industry, 1896-1966. Source: The American Car since 1775, 1971, by the Editors of Automobile Quarterly US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Data
Here is our first effort to list the companies that were on the Fortune 500 list in 1955 that no longer exist as independent companies. We have more work to do here, going down the entire list. But it should remind us of all the fallen giants! Source:...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Data
Largest US companies and their Market Capitalizations in 1964. Market Capitalization Large US Companies 1964 (XLSX)
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Articles, Data, Data, Data, Foodservice and Lodging, Other Industries
Here is a list of the largest US-based hotel chains in 1969, including the number of hotels and motels (“units”). Source: Institutions Magazine 400 1969 list. 1969 largest hotel chains (XLSX)
by Gary Hoover | Sep 27, 2018 | Business in General, Data
Here are lists of selected large American companies in 1917 and 1929. The notes on the spreadsheet tabs are important to read. Source: Forbes Magazine 50th Anniversary Issue, 9/15/1967 Largest Companies 1917 and 1929 (XLSX) In our continuing research, we...