LAURA SLATTERYperuses the week in business

Shop talk

To mark the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the UK, the Vatican has opened its travelling papal retail unit for business, contracting IVS Group to make such blessed items as a baseball cap embroidered with tour motto “Heart Speaks Unto Heart”. Inevitably, Swarovski has also contributed some of its abundant crystals to the merchandising effort. Even more intriguing are the unofficial “Team Benedict” hoodies, courtesy of a group called Catholics With Attitude. But for every Team Aniston there was a Team Jolie, for every Team Edward, a Team Jacob. So far there’s no word on who or what represents the opposing team in this case, although apparently other commercially viable religions are available.

Dictionary corner - Quasi-recession

Unable to keep away from the television cameras for long, the discredited former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has been back on his crystal ball, telling NBC's Meet the Press that the US economy is in "a pause" in its recovery – "but a pause in the modest recovery feels like a quasi-recession". Greenspan appeared to be referring to the phenomenon to which Irish people are well accustomed: no minus before the GDP figures, but plenty of minuses on consumers' bank balances. Greenspan was still admirably vague on the prospect of a double-dip recession, however. "It's touch and go," he said – much like his continued future as a "didn't he used to be . . ." commentator on matters economic.

€450m

Dublin’s economy will grow by this much from 2020 thanks to Dart Underground, says the Dublin Chamber.

'Nobody owes Mr Hayward an apology'

Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, responds as the former BP boss's claim that it's "a big ocean" is deemed partially correct.

Status update

Captive market: Barclays bank has reportedly taken the ingenious step of sending sales reps into UK prisons to recruit the custom of prisoners who are due for release.

Sex sells: Time Warner has increased quarterly profits 7 per cent to $562 million, thanks to box office hits led by Sex and the City 2. Former sister business AOL fared less well.

Red fever: As many as six rival bids have been submitted for Liverpool FC, with one of the interested parties, Kenny Huang, backed by Chinese state-owned investment fund.

Could 'agflation' be making a comeback?

AGFLATION, AKA agricultural inflation, was the hot finance-world coinage of 2007, a year in which food prices across the globe dramatically ascended thanks to a pronounced coincidence of falling supply and rising demand. The surge in grain and dairy prices – which more than doubled in some cases – didn’t start to unwind until mid-2008, by which time several African and Asian countries had suffered shortages of basic foodstuffs, prompting food riots. So is agflation now back on the menu?

Wheat prices have risen to a two-year high, up 50 per cent since June, as a result of severe drought in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and heavy rains in Canada.Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has banned exports, fuelling wheat prices on world commodity markets even further. The rises are expected to be passed onto consumers in the form of a higher price tag on everything from a loaf of bread to a packet of digestives: indeed, Premier Foods – the maker of Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes – has said as much. Given farmers need to buy tonnes of grain to feed livestock, meat prices may also be upward bound.

But will this strengthening market turn into another global food crisis? The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation says not. Fears of a repeat are unjustified, it says, because after two years of record crops, global food stockpiles are much higher than they were going into the 2007-2008 price spike.