QUOTE OF THE WEEK"You have people who - to put it crudely - haven't the remotest idea of where the labour exchange is because they never in their life thought they would be going on to the Live Register. They are also psychologically not prepared for it."
- Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin predicts that the highly mortgaged classes living on the "precipice of precariousness" will find it hard to adjust.
THE NUMBERS
2.5
- percentage share of the Republic's grocery market held by British retail giants Sainsbury's and Asda, according to TNS Worldpanel - impressive given neither chain has any shops here.
940,000
- passenger numbers through Dublin airport are expected to be down by about this number in 2009, as business travellers and mini-breakers opt for "staycation" alternatives.
GOOD WEEK
BWAGS (bankers' wives and girlfriends)
Finally, the blog we've all been waiting for . . . "Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together - free from the scrutiny of feminists - and share their tearful tales." Sample quote: "This whole messy ordeal has advanced my Botox start date by at least two years."
Shell
It may have recorded its first quarterly loss in a decade on the back of plummeting oil prices, but the Anglo-Dutch oil group still managed to rake in the biggest annual profit in UK corporate history at £21.9 billion (€24 billion) - or a cool €2.7 million an hour. "Shell is still feasting while the rest of us face famine," said one union leader.
BAD WEEK
Mini-Madoffs
With sceptical investors pressing the panic button and no new lump sum owners to rip off, a plethora of US Ponzi schemes are coming apart at the seams, giving rise to a cluster of "Mini-Madoffs" on the books of US federal police and regulators. In one case, 1,500 people gave $20,000 to one Nicholas Cosmo, seeming to neither know nor care that he had already been imprisoned for securities fraud.
PIIGS
It hasn't been such a wonderful week for high debt and deficit EU states such as Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, dubbed the PIIGS by London traders. Spain has officially entered recession, the Italian government toyed with the idea of rescuing its car industry and the Central Bank lowered Ireland's growth forecast, although the protesting Greek farmers have laid down their pitchforks for the moment.
