Planet Business

A selection of highlights for this week's business news

THE NUMBERS

24

Number of countries who had their prime ministers at the G20 summit, as the 19 richest nations plus the country holding the presidency of the EU (the Czech Republic), were joined by Spain, Netherlands, and the prime ministers of Thailand and Ethiopia.

£20 million

Cost of security and policing at the G20 summit, although the Americans happily imported their own cavalcade of armoured black limousines.

88

Number of arrests of anti-G20 protesters in London as of midday yesterday, as protesters clashed with police in parts of the British capital on "Financial Fool's Day".

$750 billion

Cash expected to be made available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a result of the G20 negotiations, representing a trebling of its reserves to help stricken economies.

G20 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The last thing I'm going to do is wade into European football. That would be a mistake . . . I didn't get a briefing on that, but I sense that would be a mistake."

- After smoothly answering thorny questions from reporters about the banking crisis "blame game" and diverging opinions on global recovery strategies, Barack Obama wasn't going to mess up by declaring a rash allegiance to the England football team.

G20 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2

"Crowd gobsmacked by protesting spiderman who has freeclimbed (!) side of BoE to string up banner."

- Sample Tweet from

The Guardian

's coverage of anti-G20 protesters' attempt to storm the Bank of England's Threadneedle Street fortress.

G20 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 3

"While you are here protesting, we are repossessing your house."

- Text of an impromptu sign spotted outside a London branch of HBOS.

GOOD G20

Nicolas Sarkozy and AngelaMerkel

The French president and German chancellor staged something of a publicity coup by holding a joint news conference, stressing the need to avoid costly fiscal stimuli, on the day that Gordon Brown was playing host to stimulus-friendly Barack Obama at Number 10 Downing Street. Sarkozy had earlier seized the headlines by threatening to walk out of the whole affair before showing up to the official dinner 10 minutes late, while Merkel lucked out by being awarded the coveted seat next to Obama.

BAD G20

RBS / peaceful protesters

A solitary branch of Royal Bank of Scotland bore the brunt of a spot of violence during the demonstrations in London on Wednesday, with its boarding-free windows smashed by a battering ram while computers and telephones were ripped out. Meanwhile, as world leaders sat down to enjoy a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb and bakewell tart from the hand of Jamie Oliver, entirely peaceful protesters were penned in for hours, long after many of them wanted to go home, by police cordons in a controversial tactic known as "kettling".