Compiled by Laura Slattery
Quote of the Week
"There wasn't anyone in the office, from the receptionist up, who paid as low a tax rate [ as me] and I have no tax planning. I don't have an accountant or use tax shelters. I just follow what the US Congress tells me to do."
- The world's third-richest man, Warren Buffett, tells NBC television that the US taxation system has made a dramatic tilt towards the rich and away from the middle class. Buffett said he paid 17.7 per cent tax compared to an average of 32.9 per cent among his office staff.
The Numbers
$160 millionThe golden goodbye given to Stan O'Neal, who has been allowed to retire rather than be sacked from Merrill Lynch after the bank was forced to write off a $7.9 billion exposure to the subprime crisis.
$800Spot price reached by an ounce of gold, its highest level since 1980, as the depths-plumbing dollar sent the precious metal soaring.
$96The price surpassed by a barrel of US light crude oil, as market watchers ominously described the latest spike as a step into the unknown.
Good Week
Willpower-free gym membersFitness and leisure clubs have been told by the National Consumer Agency to make their membership contracts a little less foggy, making it clear how much people who want to quietly slink off the treadmill will have to pay to cancel their membership.
Fairtrade cocoa farmersThe Archbishop of York in England has called on all chocoholics to help end a "21st-century iniquity" by spurning all chocolate unless it is Fairtrade. His comments have been interpreted as a challenge to Nestlé, one of York's biggest employers.
TescoNot only has it got the Spice Girls in for its Christmas ad campaign, but a new report by the UK's Competition Commission has poured scorn on the "Tescopoly" theory that it is too dominant, despite accounting for £1 for every £3 spent by British consumers on food.
Bad Week
Waterford CrystalOnly 20 years ago it employed 3,200 people in Ireland and its crystal wares were a wedding gift staple. But modern tastes have usurped its ubiquity, and the only cuts that attract attention at Waterford now are job cuts - another 470 to go with just 530 staff to remain at its Kilbarry HQ.
US televisionIn a plot twist straight out of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, gags on topical comedy shows such as Tonightwith Jay Leno and the Daily Showwith Jon Stewart could dry up if the Writers' Guild of America goes on strike over a row with producers about extra payments for work reused on DVDs and the internet.
ICG biddersThe seven-month takeover battle for the ferries group finally sank into the abyss late on Halloween, as neither management group Aella nor One51/Doyle Group consortium Moonduster made a formal offer by the October 31st deadline.
