Share markets nosedived in Asia overnight as the inflationary jolt from surging oil prices threatened to raise living costs and interest rates across the globe, while investors desperate for liquidity fled to the US dollar.
Brent crude soared 27 per cent to $117.58 a barrel, the biggest daily gain since at least 1988, which came on top of a 28 per cent rise last week.
Bank of Ireland, AIB and PTSB are on track launch their new instant person-to-person mobile payments service, Zippay, on their apps this week as they seek to take on Revolut, the leader in this field in the Republic. Joe Brennan reports on the rollout.
Martin Wall reports that Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien’s refusal to sign off on close to a €1 million exit package for former airport chief Kenny Jacobs last autumn was partly because of the precedent it would set “in circumstances where boards and executives of State companies clash”.
Correspondence released by the Department of Transport shows that on November 14th, O’Brien formally refused to approve a settlement deal that emerged from a mediation process involving the company and Jacobs. Jacobs subsequently stepped down last month after settling a legal dispute with the airport group.
FT columnist Pilita Clark finds herself trying to remember the last time she bought a burger or a train ticket or a bag of groceries in London entirely from a person, as she comes to the conclusion that it’s time to end the grim march of the touchscreen.
Dominic Coyle looks at the challenges people face in putting enduring powers of attorney in place for a reader in his latest weekly Q&A. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.
John FitzGerald writes in his latest column that with belt tightening now the norm for regions in the UK, Downing Street is set to have less sympathy for ongoing budget overruns in Northern Ireland.
John McCartney, who lectures in in property economics, says reports that the Dublin office vacancy rate is declining are not backed up by the data.
The global chair of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says in an interview with Emmet Malone that there is a lot of “chat, hot air and hype” around the implementation of AI by businesses.
Tony Clayton-Lea speaks to Lorna Murphy, co-founder, Fresh Cuts Clothing, for Me & My Money. She is a saver rather than a spender at the moment as she is saving for her first home.
In Stocktake, Proinsias O’Mahony notes that former Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein can’t resist taking a dig at US president Donald Trump in his new memoir, Streetwise. Reflecting on his own working-class upbringing, Blankfein notes that “people from my neighbourhood didn’t have doctors to sign letters attesting to their obscure disabilities, such as bone spurs”.