Danish-baiting, flat-pack, hotdog monger Ikea will launch a mobile phone business this week in a tie-up with T-Mobile, who will provide pre-pay services. The new service, Mobile Family is aimed at the 1.4 million people on the Ikea loyalty programme. To kick start the service the firm will give each of its 9,500 employees a mobile phone (which they have to build themselves) and £5 credited SIM card. Similar deals have already been carried out at Asda, Tesco and Warephone Carhouse. Its a good way to find new customers: Vodafone has into new territory by launching virtual networks with Lebara Mobile that cater for Britain’s immigrant population - a market worth an estimated £500m a year - with cheap international calls to Africa, south-east Asia, India, South America and eastern Europe.

As Clinton’s former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin commands quite a bit of respect as someone who know what he’s talking about. Well, who knows what he’s talking about?! Nailing his colours to the mast on the current economic downturn, Rubin sagely has gone on the record: “it will likely continue for quite soem period of time, could get a little bit worse. There’s always some chance that matters could get better more rapidly…and there’s a low chance that things could get considerably worse.” Thanks for that Bob. Clear as mud. No surprise that astute Rubin is on the Exec Committee at CitiGroup - the conglomerate that faces fraud charges in the USA and who last posting saw loses of $2.5bn.