Business week in review

In profit...

PricewaterhouseCoopers chairman Ian Powell was certainly in the money on Monday, after revealing that he was paid £3.6m for the year to June. That's up £300,000 – or one week of Gareth Bale's time – on last year. More broadly, more than 870 partners took home an average of £705,000 each, up 4 per cent on 2012.

On Tuesday, South African mining and commodities trading magnate Ivan Glasenberg pleased investors when he revealed that the cost savings from the $42bn (£29bn) deal that created Glencore Xstrata would be $2bn.

Royal Mail boss Moya Greene fired the starting gun on the flotation of the 250-year-old postal business, though unions are set to vote over a possible strike.

...at a loss

For balance, we lead the down-at-heel side of this column with Big Four accountant, Deloitte. UK senior partner and chief executive David Sproul saw his bean-counting empire fined a record £4m by the Financial Reporting Council for failing to manage conflicts of interest over their advice to collapsed car manufacturer MG Rover.

Rover collapsed into administration in 2005, for the loss of 6,000 jobs with debts totalling £1.4bn.

On Wednesday, Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins warned of "a property-driven boom", arguing the market was "more buoyant" than at any time over the past 10 years.

WM Morrison boss Dalton Philips said on Thursday a third of the supermarket's customers are "one pay cheque away from bankruptcy".