Business Diary: An honour just to be working there

Fine words from City minister Lord Myners to an audience of bankers, offering them a reality check on pay and bonuses by suggesting they think about the fact that the minimum wage is just £5.73-an-hour. Lord Myners sets an example by drawing no ministerial salary at all... no doubt a £100,000-a-year pension from fund manager Gartmore, once owned by RBS, cushions the blow.

No penny-pinching at Blackstone

On the topic of fat-cat pay, it is worth noting that mega-bucks salary packets haven't disappeared completely during the ongoing credit crisis. As a boss of a private equity business caught in the eye of the storm, you might think Steven Schwarzman, who runs the buyout giant Blackstone, might have taken a hit last year. Well, er, not a bit of it – his pay totalled $702m (£431m). That is nice work... if you can get it.

New owner, same home

Shocking news from the Ideal Home Show, a staple of British life. The exhibition has been sold to Media 10. But the show is safe – the next one begins at Earl's Court in March 2010

Bouncing up and down in a trade war

Justin Urquhart-Stewart, TV pundit and boss of Seven Investment Management, is concerned that protectionism might damage global economic recovery. He dubs the US's decision to impose tariffs on imports of tyres from China, and the retaliatory action on poultry from the Chinese, as an "attack of the rubber chickens".

Number of the day

94

The number of banks in the United States that have been closed by regulators so far this year