In Numbers: Football bloody hell
$1,100
The top price for a ticket to the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow, not from a tout or a "reseller" but from world football body Fifa. That's €994 at current exchange rates.
$105
The cheapest price for the opening round of games (about €95), which is up 16 per cent on the 2014 tournament. Sharply discounted tickets priced in roubles are available to Russian residents.
$455
The cheapest ticket for the 2018 final between Germany and Argentina (probably). Fifa said it wanted to “make sure that we priced tickets fairly to make the events accessible to as many people as possible”, which translates as “see you in Sochi, suckers”.
Image of the week: Unionbuster
The best pictures of Nigel Farage, and the only acceptable ones now, are those taken from a distance with no zoom. Here, in his latest two-fingers to Europe, the now former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) combines a voting session at the European Parliament, where he is an MEP, with a telephone call, which is very basic back-of-the-class behaviour. Has anyone told him what might UK telcos might do to their customers' roaming charges once it goes full Brexit? Lucky Nigel can put it all on expenses. Ukip, meanwhile, will presumably be obliged to change its name if Scotland gets another chance to take its oil and run - although that is, still, an "if".
Photograph: Frederick Florin / AFP / Getty Images
The lexicon: Economic PTSD
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England and this week's winner of the Nicola Sturgeon Only Adult in the Room award, said the UK is suffering from a form of "economic post-traumatic stress disorder" in the wake of its vote to leave the European Union, with the aftershocks including more hesitant consumer spending. And that was before three asset management companies froze trading on its property funds after a flurry of withdrawals and sterling began to sink again. Note: "Economic PTSD" is not to be confused with "Economic PMDD", which has not yet been coined by any central banker, but has the potential to be much, much worse.
Getting to know: Tina Green
Married to Philip Green, Tina Green is the ultimate owner of several of the companies that make up the family retail empire. She has hit the headlines for writing to a Westminster inquiry into the collapse of BHS to inform them of the perhaps surprising news that the Green family firms are not based offshore for tax reasons, but because tax havens like Jersey and the British Virgin Islands have "strong regulatory regimes". Lady Green, who just fancies Monaco as a really nice place to live, is a self-described "wild child", while her daughter has dubbed her a "blonde hurricane". She once told a newspaper that she thought her future husband was "dreadful" when they first met, but they seem very happy now. According to the Financial Times, for his 63rd birthday, Tina "commissioned a cake decorated with an image of her husband relaxing in bed, upper torso exposed, with a hand around 'his greatest love', Louie, a terrier".
The list: Profit Warnings
The post-Brexit season for profit warnings is probably only just beginning, but here are five companies that have had to revise their expectations downwards already.
1. IAG: The British Airways / Aer Lingus was one of the first out of the traps with a profit warning in the wake of the Brexit vote.
2. EasyJet: Brexit means it might have to shift its headquarters out of the UK, which is not a problem its rival Ryanair has. French air traffic control strikes have compounded its misery.
3. Foxtons: "Finally some good news," declared London freesheet Metro when Foxtons issued its profit warning. It's almost as if people don't like estate agents.
4. Clarkson: The world’s biggest shipbroker is under pressure from weak global trade, and though it did not mention Brexit, the company did mention the dollar’s strengthening against the pound.
5. Australian Vintage: Sterling’s plunge has prompted the winemaker to cite Brexit in its profit warning, as economic fears stalk the wine aisle.
