Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
# inbox me
The Briefcase: Oil wars, Irish milk fans and glitter rage
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.
So 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
Everyone loves cheap oil… except those producing it
Rewind the clock about 6 months and a barrel of Brent crude oil, if you were in the market for such a thing, would set you back about $110.
Now step back to today and you would expect to pick up two for a c-note, with even a little pocket change left over depending on the day-to-day fluctuations.
While the euro’s plunge has taken some of the gains out for consumers, Ireland has still enjoyed a drop of nearly 25% in the price of petrol and diesel at the pump.
Unfortunately, companies a bit further down the fuel food chain have been slower to react to the unexpected windfall.
Airlines like Aer Lingus, which spends about a quarter of all its expenses on fuel, are predicting a big lift in profits due to cheap oil, but are yet to pass on those savings to passengers.
Gas prices have also fallen on the oil glut, although again there has been little change so far to Irish energy bills.
Consumers are being urged to vote with their feet and help drive prices down from suppliers which are trying to take the cash while they can.
But all that cheap oil has been wreaking havoc on the budget’s of big exporting nations. That is particularly true for the OPEC consortium, which is locked in a price war with US shale oil producers in an attempt to drive them out of business.
And then there are the companies closer to home, such as oil giant BP or smaller domestic firms like Petroceltic, which have been frantically rewriting plans to cope with the new world order of dramatically lower prices.
Which goes to show, one man’s oil feast is just another’s famine.
Nice to know
- Central Bank chief Patrick Honohan fronted the banking inquiry, where he revealed former finance minister Brian Lenihan wanted to burn bondholders in the toxic Anglo Irish Bank – but he was overruled. It came in the same week that the current minister, Michael Noonan, said he was pretty confident the government would get its bank bailout cash back… not including the fortune it poured into Anglo
- The Chinese love Irish milk and the country is now the second-biggest market for local dairy exports. Bord Bia said Ireland’s total food and drink exports were worth €10.5 billion last year – a new record
- Failed billionaire Seán Quinn agreed to forfeit some of his future earnings, but only €10,000 annually for the next two years. The magnate, who lost a fortune on the Anglo bank collapse, exited bankruptcy this week as the industrial empire he built continued to be picked apart
Now you know
- Monaco tried – and failed – to trademark its own name. A European Court ruled the tiny principality was too famous to have its name protected under patent law
- Penneys aka Primark remains the crown jewel for its UK parent Associated British Foods. The clothes retailer had a bumper Christmas, delivering a boost to its owners
- An ultra-conservative Jewish newspaper photoshopped Angela Merkel and other female leaders out of its front-page photo of the Charlie Hebdo rally. Not to be outdone, Waterford Whispers conjured up a similar version – this time missing all the men
- A fishing supertrawler that was banned from Australian waters was spotted off the Irish coast, causing concerns among local fish producers
- Image magazine came under fire for advertising an unpaid PA internship with duties that included itinerary planning, front-of-house duties, making cost savings and office cleaning
- Eircom was criticised for “excessive” and “opportunistic” price rises as it hiked monthly fees on its residential and business accounts nearly €100 a year for some customers
One for the road
Every once in a while, an idea so simple – yet so brilliant – comes along in the business world that it leaves would-be entrepreneurs slapping their foreheads in frustration and crying: “I’m an eejit, why didn’t I think of that?”
And then there’s ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com.
The brain child of 22-year-old Australian Mathew Carpenter, the site offers pretty much what it says on the box for the price of AUD$9.99 (about €7).
Within 24 hours of going live he was trying to sell the website and even begging customers to stop placing orders as the idea of “sending stupid fucking glitter to terrible people” went global.
What’s so bad about glitter I hear you say? Let’s ask conservative US politician Newt Gingrich:
READ: Anglo boss’s ‘outright lies’, Welfare Wednesday and oil like water >
READ: Rouble the new lira, a banking inquiry and the Metro Herald is kaput >
