Compiled by LAURA SLATTERY
Pay day
A COOL $1 million for 45 minutes work is hard to come by even for internationally successful pop stars – and presumably even harder to give up. But a pay cheque is only as good as the name on the cheque book, and when that name is an increasingly brand-toxic dictator, it's time to start reviewing one's favourite charities.
So it has been for Nelly Furtado, who has announced she will donate to charity the $1 million she was paid to sing hits such as Maneater and I'm Like a Bird to the family of Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy in a hotel in Italy in 2007.
There is no word yet on what Usher, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey are going to do with the cash they received for performing at events hosted by members of the Gadafy family.
Shop talk
AUSTERITY, COMBINED with rising female unemployment in the UK, has frayed the edges of earnings at fast fashion retailer Primark, it indicated in a trading statement this week. Warning of a "noticeable" slowdown in demand, the retailer, which trades as Penneys in Ireland, is also seeing its margins shrink as a result of higher cotton prices.
Its parent company, Associated British Foods, promptly saw its share price slip, but while it is taking a hit on cotton, the group is also the beneficiary of strengthening commodity markets, with soaring sugar prices set to enhance profits at its sweetener division.
£20m
– the sum Sky News is estimated to lose annually. The UK government has agreed to allow News Corp to take over BSkyB as long as it spins off Sky News into a separate company.
Status update
Stock image: The Irish Stock Exchange has won a gong at the Rebrand 100 Global Awards. Its consultants, BFK, said its rebranding had made “an emotional connection”.
Dotcom bubbleville: JPMorgan is rumoured to be interested in buying a stake in Zynga, the social gaming firm that sells virtual goods to players of FarmVille and CityVille.
Breast not best: Westminster Council has confiscated breast milk from an ice cream parlour selling a “Baby Gaga” flavour made from the human fluid, vanilla and lemon. Tasty.
The question
When will the European Central Bank increase interest rates?
It’s always a bad sign when Paddy Power starts promoting its book on ECB interest rate increases. Even before yesterday’s inflation warnings by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, the bookmaker reckoned the odds of the European monetary body announcing two rate increases in 2011 were bigger than the odds that they would make just one.
But when will all of this mortgage misery be inflicted? Earlier this week, the smart money was on the ECB waiting to lift rates off their historic floor of 1 per cent until about September.
But Trichet’s use of the familiar central banker code words “strong vigilance” in Frankfurt at yesterday’s ECB governing council meeting has spurred investors to bring forward their bets. Trichet himself said a rate rise as early as the next meeting in April was “possible” but “not certain”, while data from Deutsche Bank shows that forward contracts based on the euro overnight index average indicate investors believe the ECB will go for a July rate hike.
It’s all in the name of curbing inflation, which is running ahead of the ECB’s target of 2 per cent. “Once the genie of inflation is out of the bottle, it might be too late,” said ECB governing council member Yves Mersch. “We will not let the genie out of the bottle.”
