1 Local authorities are asking that the Ministry of Defence provide storage for recycled waste for which there is currently no market
2 Sales of national lottery tickets have risen by 7½% in 6 months
3 Album sales fell by 17% in the UK & by 24% in the US in the second week of November
4 VSO is receiving twice as many enquiries as it did this time last year. In October the number of applications from people with a background in business management was 10% higher than in September
5 Sales of Kit Kat are up by nearly one-fifth this year
6 At Harvey Nichols Restaurants, booking a table has never been easier, according to a half-page ad appearing in the press
7 Wal-Marts profits rose nearly 10%
8 Rooms that once cost $400 a night are now being priced at $1,000 in January at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington DC. Tickets for the inauguration are trading for as much as $20,000
9 Sales of mince have risen by 16%
10 Nine out of every 10 pearl necklaces in the world originate in the mussel farms of Zhejiang province, but prices have dropped dramatically. It is not clear how much of this is due to the financial crisis, how much to a glut in the market
11 London is in the grip of an unprecedented cycling boom. The number of cycle journeys in the capital is now more than half a million a day. In the morning peak in the City, 40 per cent of the vehicles are now bikes.
12 Silicon Valley has cut 140,000 jobs this year. Google is considering the position of 10,000 contract workers
13 Leading credit card companies are to share a wider range of data to keep track of how customers use their cards
14 The Office for National Statistics has to decide whether the government’s equity stakes in 3 banks means they should be counted as Public Financial Institutions in the National Accounts. The size of the national debt could double at a stroke
15 The government is borrowing much more short term than it used to – 43% of all gilts issued this year, compared with a normal 18%
16 The cost of insuring against the government defaulting on its debt has gone up by 50%
17 A wealthy female surgeon has just commissioned kennels for her 2 Great Danes at her Cotswold home. The cost will be £1,400,000
18 New lending for house purchase is expected to be less than the amount repaid to banks & building societies next year
19 We have been buying more condoms & things to ease our weary feet. SSL, the owners of Durex & Scholl have seen their profits increase by 46%
