MONDAY

The decision by Jade Goody (below) to "die in the public eye" sparks debate as some denounce her poor taste and lack of dignity while others laud the courage of a young woman determined to live her final months as she did her first 27 years – loud, proud and all too humanly flawed, but also raising awareness about cervical cancer screening as well as money for her two young sons.

Is the verdict of Chavez II a good or bad portent for Lisbon II? Loved and loathed in equal measure, Venezualan president Hugo Chavez gets the result he was looking for second time round when he wins a constitutional referendum allowing him to stand for presidency for a third term.

Reviled and revered in her own way, Posh Spice (right) presents her second collection of designer frocks at the start of New York Fashion Week. They get the thumbs up from the powerful fashion elite with critics describing her design ability as "extraordinarily accomplished".

The man we currently love to hate, public enemy No 1 Seán FitzPatrick (above), relies on his lawyers when he tells the Oireachtas Economic Regulatory Affairs committee he simply cannot answer their questions about his hidden loans or any other Anglo Irish Bank goings-on while he was either chairman or chief executive "for legal reasons".

tUESDAY

The greasy tills of our banking world again ring alarm bells as Irish Nationwide chairman Michael Walsh resigns from his €100,000-a-year job because he feels the society can't survive without the banks guarantee. Back at the Dáil, Taoiseach Brian Cowen admits he knew when he was finance minister back in March 2008 there was an issue with Anglo Irish Bank over Seán Quinn's "overhang" but was told it had been sorted out by a group of 10 investors – not that they had been loaned the €450m to buy the shares by the bank itself.

Sins of another kind are uncovered in a new Vatican study which suggests that, of the seven deadlies, men are most likely to commit lust, while women are beholden to pride. Rather predictably, the top three male vices are lust, gluttony and sloth – with avarice surprisingly coming in at number seven. Meanwhile, the women's sin bin is topped with pride, followed by envy and anger.

Barack Obama signs his €787bn stimulus plan as the world crosses its fingers, toes and every other cross-able body part in the hope that the US leads the charge to economic recovery.

wEdNESDAY

More wheels within wheels of golden circles as Brian Cowen attacks Enda Kenny for again asking him if "any member of your cabinet" knew about the Anglo 10 share-support scheme. Cowen adds there is "no mystery" as to why he exempted those "contracts for difference" from stamp duty around the time Seán Quinn was buying 25% of Anglo Irish through CFDs. He did it because the stockbrokers and London investment managers asked him to.

From bank debt to household debt, with Bord Gáis promising they'll cut your ESB bill by at least 10% this year; 9,000 customers switch providers in the first 36 hours.

thursDAY

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, dressed as a mobile phone, switches his passengers on as the first flight to allow mile-high mobile calls and texts takes off from Gatwick to Dublin. Two passengers making in-flight contact with their fathers soon discover their calls cost €3 a minute – more than the €2.75 each they'd paid for their tickets.

More wasted money on flights, this time the first-class and business travel booked by Fás executives for trips to Florida. Full details of whose wives went on the junkets have been sent to the taxman as their travel and accommodation could be considered a benefit in kind.

friday

Gardaí are called as Tom Parlon (above), director general of the Construction Industry Federation, is jostled as he goes into the Labour Court to argue for a 10% pay cut for the 190,000 building workers still employed... the workers say they are the
fall guys for the consequences of developers' greed.

Anglo Irish Bank's annual report and Pricewaterhouse-
Cooper's report into the banks are published to more disbelief. But the Anglo 10, hailed as "heroes" by businessman Ulick McEvaddy (above) – and described more prosaically as developers who are not household names by RTÉ's business correspondent David Murphy – remain anonymous for the time being.