Christian Dior, for example, sued Kruidvat, a Dutch discount chain, after it advertised its Poison and Fahrenheit high-priced perfumes alongside a line of lurex underpants.

ECONOMIST: Shopping

Steve Hodge, treasurer of Shell, an Anglo-Dutch oil giant, says that a difference of only one percentage point in the discount rate can change the value of, say, an oil refinery with a 15-year life by hundreds of millions of dollars.

ECONOMIST: Corporate finance