A street sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange May 8, 2013.Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Honk if you love Wall Street
As if there wasn't enough vanity on Wall Street as it is. The owner of a vanity licence plate reading WALL ST put it up for auction on eBay last week.
The plate, which comes attached to a 2002 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, carried a reserve bid price of $12,000. The auction closed Wednesday morning, but alas, attracted no bidders.
The unidentified seller bought it while working at brokerage E.F. Hutton in 1976, when it first graced a '76 Chrysler Cordoba, no doubt upholstered in real Corinthian leather.
The odds of a Grexit, according to Varoufakis
"I rule out a 'Grexit' as a sensible solution. But no one can rule out everything. I can't even rule out a comet hitting earth."
Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper, as reported by Reuters.
Send out the clowns, says German politician
"They are behaving like clowns sitting in the back of the classroom, although they have received explicit warnings from all sides that they might fail to pass to the next grade."
The assessment of Andreas Scheuer, the secretary-general of Angela Merkel's CSU party, of the Greek government's approach to negotiations, as reported by Business Insider.
Heinz ketchup contest more than a bit saucy
A German contest to design a Heinz ketchup label has caught the company with its pants down.
The promotion, which ran from 2012 to 2014, encouraged consumers to scan a QR code on bottles to access a website about the contest. But Daniel Korell got a surprise when the link directed him to Fundorado, a hard-core pornography website.
Seems Heinz had let the domain name lapse when the promotion ended, and it was then registered by Fundorado, according to German online news site, TheLocal.De. Any household with a bottle of ketchup in the fridge that's a year old still has the code printed on it.
"Your ketchup really isn't for underage people," Mr. Korell commented on his Facebook page.
Mr. Korrell got an apology from Heinz's social media team, and porn site Fundorado also reached out – offering a year's subscription for free.
New bond airs its dirty laundry
Looking for an offbeat bond to invest in? How about dirty laundry?
Bonds yielding pitiful returns have given rise to a segment known as esoteric asset-backed securities (ASB), built upon everything from timeshares to pizzas and even Peanuts merchandise.
An upcoming issue by Alliance Laundry Systems LLC, based in Wisconsin and owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, hopes to raise $400-million (U.S.) for the maker of commercial laundry equipment, Bloomberg reports.
And in case you're wondering how safe an investment can be that depends on the fortunes of the dirty-laundry business, Standard & Poor's said it may assign it an investment-grade A rating.
It's probably only a matter of time before we get the jokes about laundering money.
Witches get tetchy over Etsy E-commerce site Estsy, dedicated to handmade and vintage items, saw trouble brewing with some of the offerings on its website.
It has long had a ban on the selling of "metaphysical services" (such as spells, hexes, magic potions and the like) that didn't offer a physical product. However, the Wiccan community of Etsy retailers has got around that by sending customers photos of spells being cast, Quartz reports. But now Etsy has decided to crack down on the practice.
Still, as long as they're offering a tangible item other than just a photo, there's still money to be made on Etsy for witches. Products such as the "Desire Sex Magic Love Spell Soy Pillar Candle, Bold Red and Daring Black with Dragon's Blood, Amber, Patchouli and Garnet Gemstone," can be yours for just $23.71 (plus $18.70 shipping).
imorfitt@globeandmail.com