beancounts

Noun

beancount (plural beancounts)

1. A statistical measurement that is used as an indicator of something, but which does not capture the whole picture.
   • Yet (as Howard Estes points out in his contribution to Chapter 8), these "force exchange" comparisons, although they may reveal more about the relative military capabilities of the two countries than do beancounts, are themselves based on uncertain information about each side's forces.1986, John B. Harris, Eric Markusen, Nuclear Weapons and the Threat of Nuclear War, page 257