Planet business

A round-up of today's other stories

THE NUMBERS

8.9

- the income of the richest 10 per cent of people in wealthy nations is this many times the income of the poorest 10 per cent, as the gap between rich and poor widens, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

4

- the percentage drop in footfall on the shopping streets of Ireland in September compared with the same month last year, indicating that there's a gloomy festive season ahead for recession-struck retailers.

191,469.27

- the amount in dollars the US is paying PricewaterhouseCoopers to audit its $700 billion bank bailout, and not a cent less.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 1:

'The low hanging fruit i.e idiots whose parents [paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. All of this only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.'

Andrew Lahde, whose hedge fund made an 866 per cent return last year by betting the US subprime market would collapse, quits the industry with a memorable farewell.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2:

They will all be forgotten in 50 years. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten.

Another extract from Andrew Lahde's farewell letter.

GOOD WEEK

HSBC

The bank best has snapped up Indonesian lender Bank Ekonomi, reflecting HSBC chairman Stephen Green's belief that the shift in financial power from West to East is inevitable. HSBC, which is well capitalised enough not to have to dip into the British governments emergency liquidity fund, is targeting Asia.

Wall Street

Hot on the heels of last week's news that 20th Century Fox is making a sequel to Wall Street, the "greed is good" theme will also feature in upcoming films The Wolf of Wall Street and (intriguingly) Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy as well as in television series Outrageous Behaviour, Easy Money and Law Order. Why bother with hedge funds when the financial district can be turned into a movie set?

BAD WEEK

Diamonds

De Beers, the world's largest producer of diamonds, has cut production of unpolished precious stones to stop gem prices going into freefall due to a slump in demand. The diamond industry has also postponed a conference in Belgium, deeming it inappropriate to be flaunting sparklers asthe global economy plunges.

Tracker mortgages

It was a case of first in, last out as Bank of Scotland (Ireland), withdrew its tracker mortgages, leaving first-time buyers and mortgage switchers without the option for their interest rate to track the European Central Bank (ECB) base rate and be exposed to lenders' whimes.