Jason Karaian

News from the cement industry rarely quickens the pulse. But when Holcim and Lafarge revealed the details of their proposed merger (pdf) this week, the numbers were gaudy enough to attract attention. The $43 billion cement merger is the second-largest deal announced this year, after Comcast’s $45 billion Time Warner bid. It is also the latest in a series of $10 billion-plus mega-deals, which are making a comeback in 2014 after several quiet years:

What the markets giveth, they also taketh away. A period of relative calm in Russian and Ukrainian markets ended abruptly today, amid a worrying escalation of tensions in eastern Ukraine. For investors, it never pays to be complacent, especially in this combustible corner of the world.

Being a non-executive director is a pretty cushy job. Although stricter laws have heaped more responsibility (and liability) on these board members, they still earn $250,000 for attending eight meetings per year, according to the latest numbers for large listed companies in the US. Nice work if you can get it.

British car sales have been a rare bright spot in Europe’s otherwise sputtering auto market. They did not disappoint last month, with March sales surging by nearly 18%, to just below the all-time record for the month, set 10 years ago.

“Central bankers like to talk more than they like to act,” observed Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank. He was speaking to a group of journalists in London today, ahead of the latest meeting of the European Central Bank’s rate-setting committee.

It costs twice as much to live in London as the rest of the UK, according to new data on property prices (pdf). The typical London home is now worth nearly £363,000 ($604,000), versus the £180,000 national average. London’s property market long ago detached from the rest of the UK, but the latest numbers crossed an important psychological barrier.

One in five board members at the UK’s 100 largest listed companies are women. This is “impressive” progress, according to a report published today by the British government. The share of female directors has roughly doubled over the past few years, spurred by a 2011 voluntary pledge by companies for women to hold 25% of board seats by 2015.

“The best rebuke to Russia is a strong and successful Ukraine.” This is how British prime minister David Cameron put it in a recent speech, laying out the West’s two-pronged approach to the crisis in Crimea: Slap sanctions on Russia and accelerate aid, loans, and trade agreements for Ukraine.

Over a few days in late February and early March, the biggest five banks in the US collectively published more than 1,600 pages worth of financial reports. Simply reading—much less understanding—these monsters is a Herculean task.

On its face, the retirement of Tim Fenton as chief operating officer (COO) at McDonald’s was a pretty routine corporate announcement. Executives come and go every day in the corporate world, and ill health forced Fenton (pictured above), after 41 years at the fast-food giant, to announce he was calling time on the globe-trotting lifestyle of a multinational manager this week.

Ryanair, the ultra-low-cost European airline, does things its own way. If it can offer the cheapest fares, it figures flyers will put up with bare-bones service in other areas. Ryanair rode this penny-pinching philosophy from its roots as a regional Irish carrier in 1985 to become Europe’s largest airline today.

For the second consecutive year, UK chancellor George Osborne trimmed a penny off the price of a pint of beer yesterday. This largely symbolic measure, once again, grabbed just about as many headlines as the weightier but less mirthful measures announced in the government’s annual budget.

The design for the UK’s new one-pound coin was unveiled today, and it brings a new meaning to the concept of inflation. When Britain introduced the 50-pence coin, it was the world’s first seven-sided coin—an equilateral curve heptagon, to be precise.

The sanctions imposed on Russian officials by the US and Europe yesterday were milder than many expected, sparking a rally in Russian markets. Stocks surged and the ruble jumped against the dollar, lifting it off multi-year lows.

European car sales are revving up, yet another sign that the region’s economy is steadily recovering. Passenger car registrations in the EU rose by 8% in February, the sixth consecutive monthly increase, according to data released today.

For many, Russia’s visa rules make it a hassle to visit. But soon Americans, Europeans, and others might not need a visa to visit Russia—or part of it, anyway.

The results are in, but the outcome was never in doubt. A controversial referendum in Crimea delivered a huge majority in favor of joining Russia. The West did not recognize the vote, with the White House calling it “dangerous and destabilizing” and the European Union dubbing it “illegal and illegitimate.”

Barring a last-ditch breakthrough in international diplomacy, it looks like this weekend Crimea will vote in a referendum to leave Ukraine and join Russia. The region is on edge in the run-up to the vote, with Russian and Western troops amassing on their respective borders with Ukraine.

Wrong-footed by the speed with which Crimea slipped from Ukraine’s control, Western diplomats are reassessing what they thought they knew about Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s unflinching support of the peninsula’s referendum on joining Russia caught many by surprise. As Quartz’s Steve LeVine explains, the conventional wisdom about Putin’s motives proved misguided, to say the least: 

European banks are getting their spring-cleaning done early. In recent months balance sheets have been thoroughly, if somewhat hastily, scrubbed ahead of an inspection by a stern new regulator.

The numbers: Adecco, the world’s largest staffing agency, reported a strong set of results in the fourth quarter. The Swiss firm saw quarterly revenues, excluding currency effects, rise by 4% versus the previous year, after nearly two years of declines. Quarterly profit quintupled, to €174 million ($241 million). Shares are now trading at six-year highs.

When a central bank cuts interest rates as low as they’ll go and the economy still doesn’t respond, it needs to devise more creative ways to revive it. When rates are at or near zero, so-called “forward guidance” is as good as extra stimulus, the theory goes, because central banks can use it to commit to keeping rates low for a certain period of time, or until certain economic conditions are met. Markets can then trade with greater confidence, given that the ground rules for rate hikes are spelled out in black and white.

The euro zone’s factories are humming, for the most part. A batch of data out today confirmed a steady recovery in industrial production in some of the monetary union’s largest countries. France, Italy, and Spain (pdf) all released January production data today, following an update from Germany’s mighty manufacturing machine last week.