You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1 percent
Here’s some financially irksome news: Fraud rates are steadily rising in auto loan applications. Why should that worry you? During the housing crisis in 2009, fraud rates in the mortgage lending market exceeded the 1 percent threshold, and auto loans are getting ever closer to that level, with total fraud expected to double from about $2-3 billion in 2015 to $4-6 billion in 2017. [Bloomberg]
3 laptop fires
Number of incidents involving a laptop-caused fire on flights in the U.S. in 2016, according to a FAA document reviewed by The Daily Beast. There were 33 such incidents involving personal electronic devices generally. Still, the Department of Homeland Security is considering banning laptops in carry-on bags on flights to the U.S. from Europe, presumably so they can be stowed away in the baggage area far away from fire extinguishers. [The Daily Beast]
25 percent
Percentage of Americans who strongly approve of President Trump’s job performance, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Fifty-one percent strongly disapprove. Counting people who don’t feel so strongly, Trump’s approval rating is 41 percent, per FiveThirtyEight’s tracker. [The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight]
72 percent
Percent of citizens surveyed in the Czech Republic who identify as religiously unaffiliated, making the country one of the most secular in Europe. [Pew Research Center]
282 alcoholic appearances
Product placement of alcohol brands is on the rise, roughly doubling from “140 appearances in the top 100 films in 1996 to 282 appearances in the top 100 films of 2015,” according to new research. The study found that 44 percent of the 2,000 films they looked at featured a specific, existing brand of alcohol. [Smithsonian Magazine]
$1.3 billion
The Peanuts gang made the brand investment consortiums that own and exploit their intellectual property $1.3 billion in retail sales in 2015. That money will be going to someone else in the future, though. Iconix Brand Group is selling their entertainment division, which has a majority stake in Snoopy and the gang, to DHX Media for $345 million. [The Wall Street Journal]
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