1 Diamond prices are tumbling – not just industrial quality but high price cut gems are affected too. Why are they not being used as a store of value in straitened times? Were prices inflated by excess demand for bling for the wags not just of footballers but of bonus laden bankers & traders too?
2 The price of skimmed milk powder has fallen by 25% over the past 3 months
3 Gamblers are risk averse too these days - the Las Vegas Sands Corporation has stopped all its construction work in Macau
4 The risk of power cuts this winter has receded because so many factories have closed
5 Sales of Hobgoblin real ale jumped 60% in October. They may fall right back down again however – there was a special promotion for Halloween
6 The seven top executives at Goldman Sachs will receive Zero Bonuses this year. This will mean a pay cut of about 50% if 2006 figures are anything to go by. when the chief executive ‘earned’ a total of about $53 million of which $27 million was bonus
7 British authors who receive royalties from America are seeing a rise in income because of the falling pound
8 Sales of canned drinks are falling in the USA & the prices have gone up
9 Burberry may start to carry handbags by sea instead of by air, saving £6.30 per bag in the cost of freight (currently £7)
10 We need cheering up - sales of Misery Memoirs were down 30% in the year to September
11 (Aspiring) White Van Man can have any new model without paying a deposit at a local dealers
12 The London Olympic Delivery Authority has still not found a head of finance
