Crain's Sells a Bit of Nostalgia, for Only $300

Oh, what a difference a year makes. An email from Crain's New York Business arrived in our inbox today, peddling the company's "Crain's 500" product -- a list of the top public, private, women-owned, and minority-owned companies in the New York area. It can be yours in spreadsheet format for the bargain price of $300.

Trouble is, the list uses 2007 company data, and a free peek at the first few entries reveals that it might as well have been dug out of a time capsule.

Two of the top three companies on the Crain's 500 --No. 1 Citigroup and No. 3 A.I.G. -- aren't under the same leadership that they were when the list was compiled. At that time, Chuck Prince was C.E.O. of Citigroup (doesn't that seem like a different century?) and Martin Sullivan was helming A.I.G.

More importantly, the companies are ranked by revenue, and a lot has changed since Citigroup was making $157 billion a year. As of the end of the quarter ending in October, revenues at Citi were down 35 percent from where they were at the same time last year.

A.I.G. is even worse for the wear: At the end of the third quarter of 2008, income was only about one-third as large as it was at the same time a year earlier.

And those employment figures? Yeah, those are probably going to need a downward adjustment, too.

by Liz Gunnison