Planet Business

‘Blockupy’ the ECB

Capitalism was quite literally on the defensive again this week, with German police clashing with protesters targeting the official opening of the new European Central Bank building in Frankfurt. Thousands of anti-austerity protesters, part of a movement known as Blockupy, gathered in the city before the inauguration ceremony for the new €1.3 billion headquarters, and at least two police cars were set on fire. But as the well-equipped crowd in the background of this photograph suggests, each stone thrown and tear gas cartridge fired is likely to have been captured on camera.

In Numbers

32,000

Adults who signed up to play hide-and-seek in Ikea stores in Amsterdam and Utrecht before the retailer put a stop to it on health-and-safety grounds.

1

Number of hide-and-seek games to which Ikea did grant permission. Its store in Wilrijk in Belgium played host to such an event last July, after 29-year-old Elise De Rijck put it on her list of 30 things to do before her 30th birthday. About 500 people joined in.

35,000

Square feet in Ikea’s Dublin store. Not that anyone should get any ideas. . . but there’s bound to be a good spot somewhere in the department of giant rugs.

The Lexicon: The lob index

It’s the burning question among all serious economists right now. Do shorter hairstyles signify economic growth? Or, to put it another way, and rest assured someone did, could the long bob, aka a “lob”, signify a booming economy? You might think that the answer is no, but consider this incontrovertible proof: according to some people quoted in The Sunday Times, because shorter ladies’ hairstyles require more frequent trips to the hairdressers, a vogue for shorter lengths surely reflects greater levels of disposable income. So, yes, crack open the prosecco, because the current trend is for a lob, giving rise to the term “lob index” (file it next to the hemline index, the lipstick indicator and other forced marriages of fashion and economic theory). Sienna Miller’s hair is looking nice these days, but that’s just a coincidence.

Getting to know: Brent Callinicos

Workaholic slaves to the office are out, family men (who have already made their money) are in. This week it was the turn of Brent Callinicos, chief financial officer of car-hailing company Uber, to resign in order “to keep a promise to my wife of not missing another school play, swim meet or academic achievement of our daughter’s childhood”. Every day at work, he said, he was losing time with his family, “time to help my daughter understand how important time is before time becomes a blur to her too”. Callinicos, who joined Uber two years ago, departs just a week after a similar farewell by Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette, who said he had promised his wife that “their time” had come. So will more high-flyers step off the corporate treadmill? At this rate, it’s only a matter of time.