Mrs. White, in the conservatory, with a dagger (in her back).
The classic board game Clue has killed off poor Mrs. White to replace her with a Dr. Orchid, ostensibly to "modernize" the game, as the Independent reported. Although how that modernizes anything is anyone's guess.
Dr. Orchid is said to possess a PhD in plant toxicology, and was privately educated in Switzerland "until her expulsion following a near-fatal daffodil poisoning incident." (Dr. Orchid, in the ballroom, with a daffodil?)
Whether the change will goose sales remains to be seen, but it's nice to see botanists get some recognition.
And another board game has got some attention this month.
In his July Outlook newsletter, PIMCO founder Bill Gross found inspiration in Monopoly. To illustrate some of his concerns about stagnant credit creation, he points out that each player receives a constant $200 every time they pass "Go."
But if the amount were to steadily increase, he argues, "then players could keep on building and the economy keep growing without the possibility of a cash or credit squeeze. But it doesn't. The rules which fix the passing 'Go' amount at $200 ensure at some point the breakdown of a player who hasn't purchased 'well' or reserved enough cash. Bankruptcies begin."
Mr. Gross laments in his newsletter that many big financial players have their heads buried too deeply in academic theories, and don't grasp some home truths demonstrated by the board game.
"If only Fed governors and presidents understood a little bit more about Monopoly, and a tad less about outdated historical models such as the Taylor Rule and the Phillips Curve, then our economy and its future prospects might be a little better off."
At the time of publication, Disclosures was unable to confirm rumours that the former bond king would become the latest Monopoly token and that the top hat would get the boot.
Chalk one up for the fraud squad
Hip, hip, hooray! Let's hear it for Britain's financial investigation and prosecution department. While few of the culprits responsible for the global financial crisis have been brought to book, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has nailed three former Barclays bankers with conspiracy to defraud in the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
The convictions were handed down in London on Monday, and the fraud squad also managed to bag another offender earlier, who pleaded to the same charges for offences committed between 2005 and 2007.
The SFO can add these to its tally in the scandal. Including Tuesday's three convictions, they have now secured a grand total of five. Former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes was convicted almost a year ago in connection with the Libor scandal.
The SFO has come under some pretty serious criticism over the years, with some detractors dubbing it the Serious Flawed Office, and noting huge amounts of money are spent on unsuccessful prosecutions.
In its defence, SFO chief David Green has reorganized the body since taking over, describing it as having a "slightly eccentric structure," (which in English understatement-speak means something like "totally screwed up"). Under his leadership the office has begun to secure more convictions.
Wannabe British fraudsters: You've been warned.
You want how much for that Dairy Milk?
It's not looking like a good week for British chocolate lovers. The price of cocoa hit a 39-year high this week, at £2,496 ($4,218) a tonne, rising to levels not seen since 1977, as the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Look to the plummeting pound as one of the main culprits, which managed to conversely hit a 31-year low.
The commodity was trading at $3,119 (U.S.) a tonne in New York on Thursday, but with the Brexit vote battering sterling, purchasing any foreign goods has automatically become more expensive. The chocolate-loving nation will just have to suck it up as part of not-so-sweet fallout from their referendum.
At least she's no loon
Bremainers appear to be pinning their hopes on Home Secretary Theresa May in the race to become Britain's new Tory leader – and hence its prime minister.
The sudden-death leadership nomination process began Tuesday, with hopeful Liam Fox securing the fewest votes from MPs, and so getting dropped from the ballot. Rival Stephen Crabb bowed out the same day. On Thursday, widely despised – and that's not too extreme a description – candidate Michael Gove was knocked off the ballot, leaving the contest down to just Ms. May and Andrea Leadsom, the Minster of State for Energy.
It's Ms. May everyone has their sights on, though. Currently leading by a wide margin in the number of MPs who have pledged to back her, she also happens to be the only one of the leading candidates to have been part of the referendum's Remain campaign.
She wasn't always so sure, though, as the Telegraph reports. In what surely must be an award-winning display of fence-sitting, Ms. May said in a speech in 2014: "These are the reasons I believe that the politicians who argue that we are better off in the EU, whatever the terms, are wrong. But I also believe that the politicians who argue that we are better off out, whatever the terms, are also wrong."
But take heart, Bremainers. While that's hardly a wholehearted endorsement of EU membership, it's probably the best you're going to get.
Or as the Telegraph put it: "Yes, she's a Eurosceptic, but not a swivel-eyed loon."
Toyota hopes to take to the skies
Tesla reported Sunday that it fell short of production targets for the second quarter. Elon Musk's electric car maker better step up its game, now that Toyota has plans to take auto innovation to a whole new level.
Perhaps taking inspiration from James Bond's Lotus Esprit that converted into a submarine, the Japanese car maker filed a U.S. patent application late last month for a car that can sprout wings and fly.
The filing describes a "shape-morphing fuselage for an aerocar," and the accompanying diagram depicts a vehicle with all the sex appeal of a Dodge Caravan.
While Toyota wants to corner the market in flying cars, Tesla may look to get in on the ground floor for aqua cars. Its Tesla S "floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation," tweeted Mr. Musk. And sure enough, a video making the rounds shows a Tesla navigating a flooded tunnel in Kazakhstan.
And that Bond submarine car? Mr. Musk bought it in 2013 for about $1-million (U.S.).
Disclosures will return Aug. 12