‘Doughnut economics’, Tory ‘Sensibles’ and celebrity high-earners

Planet Business: A week of stiff breezes, golden parachutes and Brexit ‘creationists’

In numbers: Not taking the Oath

$23 million

Marissa Mayer’s “golden parachute” from Yahoo will be at least this much. Being chief executive of the Nineties internet company has been “nothing short of a privilege”, she told staff. It seems to have been a bit more than that, in fairness.

$4.5 billion

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Price paid by Verizon for Yahoo, which it will merge with its existing AOL businesses to create a subsidiary called Oath, which owns HuffPost, Tumblr and more media and technology brands than anyone can remember.

1,400

If you add up all the time that users of the Yahoo app, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Fantasy (another sport thing) spend on these products on an average day, says Mayer, the total would come to the equivalent of 1,400 years.

Image of the week: Notes on a farce

The political winds have not gone in Theresa May's favour of late, and neither has the actual wind. On Tuesday, a stiff French breeze separated the woman who (at the time of writing) is still British prime minister from her notes at the start of her joint statement with French president Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The world's press duly captured May trying to catch the papers, bending over to pick them up and then attempting to laugh it off. Well, it could happen to anyone, couldn't it? Possibly the most galling thing for May, right in the wake of her electoral failure, was having to spend so much time in the company of Macron, a successful politician.

The lexicon: Doughnut economics

Doughnut economics is the title of a new book by Kate Raworth, a self-described "renegade economist", which by rights should be the title of her next book. "Doughnut economics," according to Raworth, is "a playfully serious approach" to framing "humanity's 21st century challenge", which is "to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet". (Spoiler: we're not doing too well on this so far.) The doughnut is a circle of "social and planetary boundaries", or a graphical representation of what economics should always be about: the equitable, sustainable distribution of finite resources. Sadly, this doughnut is not the filled and oozing kind. It has a great big hole in the middle, which represents the shortfall of basic needs whenever the greedy demand too big a chunk.

Getting to know: The Sensibles

"The Sensibles" are senior Conservatives who don't fancy a cliff-edge Brexit. In other words, they are the soft-Brexiteers, perhaps more accurately dubbed the Relatively Sensibles, and they include chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond, unofficial deputy prime minister Damian Green and Scottish saviour Ruth Davidson. In the opposing corner, stand "the Creationists", or the hard-Brexiteers who think "no deal" is a genuine option that their constituents and the UK at large will appreciate. Over at Schadenfreude Central, aka the editor's office of the Evening Standard, well, it seems George Osborne, the former chancellor sacked by Theresa May, is having a rather good time, splashing on this alleged Sensibles versus Creationists war with unmistakable glee.

The list: Celebrity high-earners

Forbes has published its highest-paid celebrities of 2017 list, which is the one about people who did something a bit interesting to absolutely coin it. So who were this year's top five?

5. Cristiano Ronaldo: The Real Madrid star – who denies evading tax – filled his golden football boots to the tune of $93 million from June 2016 to June 2017, according to Forbes.

4. Drake: Canadian singer-rapper who scored Spotify's most-streamed song last year with the Hennessy-namechecking One Dance can now afford to bathe in cognac after collecting $94 million in the 12-month period.

3. J.K. Rowling: Back in the top five with a $95 million in new earnings, thanks to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and her cut from Fantastic Paycheques and Where to Find Them.

2. Beyoncé: Thanks to the Lemonade album and her Formation tour, she earned $105 million, also "Queen B" says no one in the music industry works harder than her.

1. P Diddy: But P Diddy earns more, banking $130 million. He’s more of a vodka man, having “partnered” with Diageo on Ciroc for the past decade.