LAURA SLATTERYperuses the week in business
THE NUMBERS
€18,000- loss that AIB egm egg-throwing folk hero Gary Keogh sustained on an investment in AIB - which, for AIB chairman Dermot Gleeson, works out as a penalty one egg thrown per €9,000 lost.
€3.5 billion - sum that the State is pumping into AIB to recapitalise it . . . or the equivalent of 388,888 hurled eggs if taxpayers were to follow the example set by Mr Keogh.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"I feel happier about the whole thing than I have done for months." - Gary Keogh, the 65-year-old retired Arnotts worker, found Wednesday's AIB egm to be quite cathartic, not like the normal ones where "the same people stand up and make speeches and the board just sneers".
"I think the tie escaped."- Dermot Gleeson assesses the sartorial damage after Mr Keogh is escorted out of the egm by security.
"There is no Plan B to get out of this."- European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Charlie McCreevy says Ireland is not about to jump ship on the single currency anytime soon.
"Chief executives, and indeed all of us in business, can learn a lot from stand-up comedy performers."- Roger Edward Jones, author of What Can Chief Executives Learn from Stand-Up Comedians?, has somehow failed to spot that CEOs, especially those in the banking sector, are already sufficiently adept at taking the piss.
GOOD WEEK
Farmers' markets
How lovely of Bank of Ireland (whose executives presumably won't be bothering to get their suits dry-cleaned before their next confrontation with shareholders) to invite the public to taste the first Irish strawberries of the season at a farmers' market on the forecourt of its College Green branch. As part of a "getting business moving" stunt, produce such as organic fruit and vegetables, sushi, homemade jams, fudge, cupcakes were on offer - but funnily enough, no eggs.
BAD WEEK
Mortgage markets
The number of different mortgage products in Ireland has almost halved over the past year, according to the Irish Mortgage Corporation, as lenders completely withdrew tracker loans and many abandoned short-term discounts. But then too much choice can be a bad thing - just ask the armies of despairing borrowers who were suckered into fixed rate loans and are now locked into sky-high monthly repayments while the European Central Bank merrily slashes rates.
