While the total compensation reported by big banks in their 2011 results may be lower, keep an eye on another, and perhaps more important, yardstick that is likely to increase at some firms: the compensation-to-revenue ratio.
While the total compensation figures reported by big banks in their 2011 results may be lower, keep an eye on another, and perhaps more important, yardstick that is likely to increase at some firms: the compensation-to-revenue ratio.
Groupon said that the measure - which subtracted its formidable online marketing and acquisition costs from its operating performance - was an important yardstick the company used.
"By the most important yardstick, based on the sales currency of C3 ratings, we're the network leader," Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, said in an e-mail message.
He argued that the government's inexperience and "perhaps a touch of recklessness" had led Osborne to repeatedly cite the UK's credit rating as such an important yardstick.
The majors could still give exemptions to a handful of top players on lesser tours without muddying golf's most important yardstick for excellence, much as the National Collegiate Athletic Association allows the winners of obscure conferences to play in its basketball tournaments.
Arguably, economic growth is the most important yardstick for any plan, because growth can do much to reduce the deficit, as it did after World War II and in the 1990s.
Mr. Duncan said that he considered an institution's completion rate to be such an important yardstick, and that a low graduation rate should be enough to persuade a prospective applicant to look elsewhere.
His campaign has portrayed success in winning those pledged delegates as the most important yardstick for judging the will of Democratic voters, and has encouraged superdelegates — elected officials and party leaders who have an automatic vote at the convention — to fall in line accordingly.
Covered California on Thursday announced the results of its rate negotiations with Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente and other major insurers, an important yardstick for President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
