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# The briefcase
Here's everything you need to know about business this week
Everyone was talking about Willie Walsh’s sales pitch, D-Day for Greece and Swissleaks.
EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie gives its readers the chance 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:
IAG boss Willie Walsh was in town to sell his company’s approach for Aer Lingus. The Irish airline’s former head delivered a sales pitch to skeptical politicians, but Walsh went on the front foot – suggesting the small Aer Lingus would hit some turbulence in the future in an industry increasingly dominated by the big players
Greece changed its tune on talking to the troika as D-day beckoned for any debt deal. He previously said his government wouldn’t negotiate with the triumvirate of creditors, but now officials have been given the go-ahead to work out a new arrangement after its €240 billion bailout
Several Irish clients were among a long list of wealthy HSBC clients with secret Swiss bank accounts. They were among a cohort of celebrities, businesspeople and criminals the bank’s Swiss arm helped avoid tax before the disclosure, dubbed ‘Swissleaks’
Oil companies are experiencing very mixed fortunes in the new world of cheap energy. Tullow Oil, founded in Co Carlow but now headquartered in London, posted its first loss in 15 years during the same week Norway’s Statoil unveiled plans for the most expensive offshore oil project in European history
McDonald’s is trying to force Supermac’s to change its name - in Europe and Australia at least. Apparently the “mac” part is too confusing, while the “super” might be seen as “an indication of a very high-quality product”
UTV Ireland’s two big UK soaps are pulling in lots of viewers, but not much else did. January audience figures for the new station showed Coronation Street pulled in a peak of 597,000 viewers – or nearly 37% of the audience in that slot – while Emmerdale’s best performance was 422,000 viewers
Cork Airport’s passenger numbers keep dropping – and its owners blame preferential treatment towards Shannon for the decline. The Dublin Airport Authority, which manages both the capital’s airport and the southern hub, said passenger traffic was done 5% last year to 2.1 million
The ESRI made a ‘bad mistake’ not predicting the banking crisis, but at least they saw the housing bubble coming. One of the economic think-tank’s main researchers, John FitzGerald, told the Oireachtas banking inquiry they were “totally wrong” with a 2008 call that Ireland would escape the financial crisis
Ireland is one of the worst countries in Europe to retire, according to a global wellbeing index. The country placed 32nd on a list of retirement locations with the same score as Uruguay and Poland
Apple became the first company in history to be worth over $700 billion. That’s roughly twice the market value of Google, or eight times the price of McDonald’s. The milestone came as it announced plans to spend $850 million on a 1,300-acre solar farm, while evidence also emerged the tech firm was working on some kind of car project
And one for the road…
You couldn’t walk near a bookshop, cinema or… hardware store… this week without running into 50 Shades of Grey.
Since there was no point in trying to escape it, the team at TheJournal.ie and DailyEdge.ie decided to bring you up to speed on some of the content.
Pull up a chair, gather the family around (not the kids though, lock them away) and strap yourself in for the *ahem* ride:
“I’m not reading that line, I’m not reading that one. Filth.”
READ: Why does IAG want to get its hands on Aer Lingus so badly? >
READ: So, how many followers did you have when you died? >
