A round-up of today's other stories in brief
The lady pictured with a man in her trolley is shopping at the Adopte-un-mec (adopt-a-guy) store in Paris, a “man boutique” that is serving as a strictly temporary brand extension of Adopte-un-mec’s dating site.
Altogether now: if it was the other way round, and women were put on sale in shop windows . . . But it’s not, so it’s different.
After 10 days in Paris, the man boutique/ Adopt-un-mec circus will move along to other French cities, though anyone who tries shopping for real may be disappointed to discover the samples on display are reportedly male models - “commitment” upgrades are not yet available, presumably. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters)
The list: Banker-in-chief
A job advert has been published for the position of governor of the Bank of England. Proven ability at writing monthly letters to the UK chancellor about missed inflation targets is not, it seems, one of the prerequisites for the role. So what skills are needed?
1 An ability to work closely with George Osborne: This narrows the field considerably.
2 A talent for “inspiring confidence and credibility”: The financial markets must adore you, and so must your underlings, otherwise they will leak everything.
3 High-level banking experience: You don’t have to be a central banker, but it helps. Otherwise having worked “at the most senior level” in a major bank will suffice. Knowing where the bodies are buried will also be looked upon favourably.
4 An advanced understanding of financial markets and good economic knowledge: A photographic memory of Quantitative Easing for Dummies would be a start.
5 Undisputed integrity and standing: Not you, Bob Diamond.
In numbers: Big bazookas
€190 billion- Maximum sum that Germany can contribute to the European Stability Mechanism before parliamentary approval must be secured, according to conditions imposed by judges this week.
€700 billion- Size of the ESM firewall or "big bazooka" bailout fund that will supposedly stop the three-year-old crisis from intensifying.
€1 trillion- Sum that a Greek politician claims is owed to Greece in war reparations, or €162 billion plus 3 per cent interest, rolled up since the end of the second World War.
The lexicon: Predistribution
“Predistribution” is Labour leader Ed Miliband’s new philosophy on how to fix the UK economy/society. Coined by Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, the aim of predistribution is to “focus on market reforms that encourage a more equal distribution of economic power and rewards even before the government collects taxes or pays out benefits”.
Predistribution is not about taxing the rich and then redistributing that wealth through the welfare system – it’s about distributing income more evenly in the first place. In essence, it sounds a lot like people not helping themselves to massive bonuses while paying their staff the minimum wage. So it will never catch on, or at least not unless governments intervene.
Getting to know: Angela Ahrendts
This week Burberry opened a shop in London with no till points while also enduring a record one-day plunge in its shares. The two events were not connected. After the latter misfortune, chief executive Angela Ahrendts was among eight Burberry executives to increase their stakes, spending £543,000 on the FTSE 100 stock’s shares – money which could have at least paid for a trench or two.
The share plummet followed a warning by the UK’s largest luxury goods group that revenue has stalled in recent weeks, something of a surprise given Ahrendts was not-too-long ago declaring the success of Burberry’s menswear and accessories such as iPad cases (£225) was because “men want to look better, they want to look sharper” in a recession.
