By Tom Bradley

As a follow-up to my ‘Creep’ column last week (The Dangerous Rise of an Obsession with Safety), we’ve come up with a few more items for the list. As a reminder, we defined creep as a ‘slow and stealthy movement’. One you don’t notice while it’s happening, but later when you do, you go “Wow!”

Length of a song – In the 60’s they were two minutes long. Now the standard is four, even though most songs don’t have the meat to go that long.

Length of an NFL game – Thank God for my PVR, otherwise I’d never watch a game.

Litter – Where has it gone? Low and behold, we’re so much better at picking up after ourselves.

Size of a serving of Coke – Today’s standard size was family size twenty years ago.

Conflicts of interest at financial institutions – It’s deteriorated to the point where sell-side traders compete against their buy-side clients and banks underwrite their own bond and share issues.

Parents fund-raising for schools – An historical note to young parents: Our taxes used to cover books and gym equipment.

Cost of the best bike, concert ticket or stereo receiver – Businesses have figured out that the top 0.001% of the population will pay almost anything for the best.

The Planet’s population – 7 billion and counting.

Do you see other creep out there, investment related or otherwise?