John Collinstakes a sideways glance at business this week
THE NUMBERS
3.3 per cent
The rate that UK inflation hit in May - the highest in 16 years. The Bank of England warned it could reach 4 per cent this year. British ministers will forgo a 1.5 per cent pay rise to set an example on "public-sector pay restraint". Where have we heard that before?
$68 million
The likely severance package for sacked AIG chief executive Martin Sullivan. The insurance giant has reported a record first-quarter loss of $7.81 billion and raised an additional $20 billion in capital so it should be able to afford it.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If we had that ability, we all would be wealthy and sipping a cold cocktail on a beach." -Speaking at a Dublin conference, US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins reacts to the suggestion that regulators should be able to predict future market conditions.
GOODWEEK
Electric Picnic fans
Pod Concerts, organiser of the boutique music festival, is being sued by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (Imro) over €432,000 in alleged outstanding royalties. But promoter John Reynolds this week vowed the show would go on, prompting a sigh of relief from the 32,500 fans who have snapped up tickets for the three-day festival, which is held on the front lawn of Stradbally House, Co Laois, at the end of August.
Whitbread
The operator of pubs, restaurants and cafes is benefiting from uncertain economic times as business travellers downgrade their plush hotel rooms for basic lodgings at Whitbread's Premier Inn budget chain. Sales of its no-frills, £50 a night rooms were up 10.7 per cent in the first quarter.
BAD WEEK
Vallejo
Funding for libraries, parks, police, fire brigades and other civic responsibilities is up in the air as a federal judge pores over the Californian city's books. The one-time capital of California, just across the bay from San Francisco, recently filed for bankruptcy protection due to an $18 million budget shortfall as a result of falling house prices which have slashed income from property rates.
Samuel Israel
US marshals believe the founder of the failed Bayou Group hedge fund, who was recently sentenced to a 20-year prison term for a $450 million fraud, has faked his own death. Israel's car was found beside a bridge with the words "suicide is painless" written on the bonnet. "He probably faked this. Everything about him was phoney," said Samuel Christen, who lost an $825,000 investment.
