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The Briefcase: A money-conjuring trick, billionaires' paradise and so many buzzwords
This was the week in business.
EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie asks its readers to put their feet up and take a look back at all the goings-on from the world of business.
Once again it’s time to delve deep inside The Briefcase for all the important – and sometimes less-important – financial news that has come out this working week:
Need to know
When I get that feeling, I need quantitative easing
Its imminent arrival was one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of economic policy, but this week “Super” Mario Draghi and his cohorts at the European Central Bank officially pulled the trigger on so-called quantitative easing (or QE for short).
And Draghi didn’t disappoint those calling for him to pull out a big bazooka to try and shake the eurozone out of its general malaise.
The programme – which basically means the ECB will create new money to lend to eurozone governments and banks – came in at a bigger-than-expected €1.1 trillion.
While some of the money will come from existing stimulus schemes, the bulk of that €1,100,000,000,000 will simply be spirited into existence (it looks like more when you include all those zeros).
The announcement quickly had one of the expected effects – it sent the euro reeling against the dollar, pound and other currencies.
Good news for a lot of Irish exporters no doubt, but that holiday or online shopping session just got a bit more painful.
As we noted in this little explanation on the ins and outs of QE, glamour model-turned businesswoman Katie Price has previously used Twitter to offer a few thoughts on QE and several other macroeconomic policy areas – so we were keen to see what she would have to say after the big announcement on Thursday.
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We couldn't find this Tweet
We couldn’t agree more.
Nice to know
- The world’s biggest schmoozefest at Davos, also known as the World Economic Forum, kicked off this week. Enda Kenny and tycoon Denis O’Brien were among the Irish contingent at the billionaires’ paradise, where the Taoiseach used his platform to say Ireland had learnt a “difficult lesson” from the financial crisis. There were also really expensive sandwiches and other big things going on
- Reports of the death of The Sun’s page 3 girls were greatly exaggerated. Even the UK tabloid’s upmarket stablemate, The Times, claimed the scantily-clad women were going to be dropped, but the rumours were quickly proved untrue – for now at least
- The International Monetary Fund came and went, with boss Christine Lagarde stopping to give Ireland a pat on the head as the “good performer” out of the bailed-out countries. But she poured cold water on the Greek opposition’s calls for a Europe-wide conference to address the issue of crippling debt
Now you know
- Business networking site LinkedIn revealed the top-10 buzzwords Irish people were using on their profiles, but that they should cut out
- Ryanair was fined for bad customer service in Italy, where the country’s anti-trust body hit the budget carrier for the “extreme difficulty” faced by customers trying to fix flight problems
- A caravan converted into a portable, traditional Irish pub (aka the Shebeen) will be shipped to Boston by a Galway-based company which has been hiring one out for weddings and parties
- Laya Healthcare was taken over by international insurer AIG. Members of Ireland’s second-biggest healthcare provider were assured the change wouldn’t affect them
- SplashData released its annual list of the least-secure passwords and the somewhat unoriginal 123456 and, wait for it, “password” topped the ranks
- Audio company Bose announced it was closing its Monaghan plant after nearly 40 years in the region for a loss of 140 local jobs
One for the road
There’s a lot to love about NFL TV coverage. Even if you’re not sure why there’s a bunch of 150kg men dressed like they’re in the bomb squad running straight into each other.
And this four-minute video of bad lip reading, courtesy of our friends at The42.ie, is a good reason to love it roughly 100 times more.
“All I know is this is the bad guy and this is the good one.” Oh, mercy.
Originally published 24/01/2015
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READ: Anglo boss’s ‘outright lies’, Welfare Wednesday and oil like water >
