That land is far more valuable now than it was then: Jeroen Aerts and Wouter Botzen of the Netherlands' VU University reckon the value of structures threatened by storms and floods has increased four- to sevenfold in the past century.
Analysts reckon that the value of WorldCom's estimated $4.5 billion of annual cost savings from the merger is not fully reflected in its current bid and, on those grounds alone, WorldCom could raise its offer.On the regulatory front, it looks like an equally close call.
But we also have no good means for reckoning the value of different actions interpersonally.
The Association of Residential Letting Agents reckons that the value of rented homes, estimated at around £500 billion, exceeds the total value of all the commercial premises in Britain.
Yet Screen Digest, a consultancy, reckons that the value of the mobile-gaming market will only exceed $1 billion for the first time this year.
McKinsey reckons that the value of assets in exchange-traded products (defined somewhat more widely than ETFs), which in 2010 was about $1.5 trillion, will more than triple by 2015.Equities businesses are also facing strong pressure on margins.
Kennedy forecasts that the business will grow by 6-9% for each of the next three years; private-sector business, it says, will grow by only 1-4% over the same period.Britain's Management Consultancies Association (MCA) reckons that the value of public-sector consulting to its members grew by 46% last year, while private-sector business grew by only 4%.
It reckons that the value of retail sales rose by 3.2% in the year to October, rather than falling slightly.The official series should be the more reliable because it is more comprehensive than the BRC's, which mainly picks up sales by large retailers.
(Regatta organizer Hank Halsted, president of Northrop and Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island, reckoned the value of this year's fleet of 28 boats to be about $450 million).
