Planet business

BARRY O'HALLORANperuses the week in business

€11.6 million

The amount the State paid law firm Arthur Cox for its advice on the banking crisis. That’s not counting the amount the banks paid it for advice on the same crisis.

800

The number of people still working on the administration of the European arm of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed two years ago this week, sparking the banking crisis that has proved so lucrative for Arthur Cox.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

'We are about to advance to the Champion's League of European retail banking'

Deutsche Bank boss, Josef Ackermann, announcing an €8 billion fundraising round to pay for its Postbank bid. Let’s hope it gets off to a better start than Man Utd.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2:

'We'll be able to give the people a lot of relief on the mortgages'

US billionaire Wilbur Ross of WL Ross, part of the consortium bidding for EBS, holds out some hope for homeowners struggling with repayments and negative equity, who are presumably praying hard that his bid succeeds.

GOOD WEEK

Sir Stuart Rose

The departing chairman of Marks Spencer has fallen on his feet, securing an executive role with private equity giant Bridgepoint. Industry figures say the likes of Rose are hired for their address books and ability to open doors for investment firms, services for which they can apparently command more than a penny. "Rose is not at the low end of the food chain. I don't think he would get out of bed for less than £200,000," an observer said.

Revolting masses

Trade unionists are once again up in arms about government cutbacks and are threatening to take to the picket lines and the streets. There's even talk of civil unrest and riots. But this time it's in Britain, where this week the Trades Union Council rattled plenty of sabres at its annual conference in Manchester. But the brethern reserved their worst ire for the people who asked Bank of England governor Mervyn King to address their gathering. Militant transport union boss and Millwall supporter Bob Crow said it was like asking "Satan to preach to Christians". Maybe they should have asked the pope instead.

Death. . .  

Given that it’s one of the two certainties in life, we’re wondering why nobody thought of this before: Funeralsonline.ie, went . . . erm . . . live this week, the first website of its kind in Ireland, offering a full suite of services for the departed, who are a surprisingly demanding lot. The service offers clothing, transport, hygiene treatment, eco-coffins, choice of burial plot and non-religious ceremonies. Looks like the customer could have no possible grounds for complaint afterwards.

. . . and taxes

It’s supposed to be the other certainty in life, and about 1.4 million people in Britain are certain they’re annoyed at the revenue authorities there. A mix-up with codes meant that some people have been paying too much tax and others too little – £2 billion (€2.4 billion) too little. So the taxman, in the shape of revenue chief Dave Hartnett, has decreed that they have to pay it back, either over a month, or for those who owe more than £2,000, all at once. This has made Hartnett, who is paid £165,000 a year, about as popular as Mervyn King at a Trades Union Council conference.