Business week in pictures

The new Ford Focus on display. This Ford vehicle billed as the company's first 'world car' made its debut at the opening of a defiantly optimistic Detroit motor show, as America's battered car industry insisted it was rising from the ashes of its worst crisis since the second world war
Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters

US president Barack Obama announced plans to recoup the US taxpayer funds spent on bailing out American banks in his next budget
Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan (pictured), Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein and John Mack of Morgan Stanley faced the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington, which was specifically set up to bring Wall Street to account for the crisis. They admitted underestimating the severity of the financial crisis and apologised for making mistakes. UK bankers also faced a grilling from MPs
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The sales figures for the all-important last quarter of 2009 were announced, and Waitrose was confirmed as the cracker in the supermarket pack, notching up its biggest sales and market share gains since 2005, while Asda emerged as the turkey. Meanwhile Tesco romped home with its best Christmas figures in three years as extra Clubcard points and vouchers lured in the shoppers
Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Outdoor retailer Blacks Leisure benefited from Britain's cold snap as it reported a hike in winter sales
Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A worker sets up at the Microsoft booth showing Xbox at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Game Group became the first loser of the Christmas retail battle, issuing a profit warning after sales fell far more than expected
Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

The boss of Waterstone's took the hit for the book chain's sales tumbling 8.5% in the five weeks to 2 January – those figures cost him his job. The poor results took the shine off a record performance at HMV's entertainment stores, which saw a 2.2% rise in sales in the same period
Photograph: Graeme Robertson

The cost of servicing a mortgage fell to its lowest level in five years in November, with the percentage of income needed to cover monthly interest payments falling to 12%
Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Britain's biggest union, Unite, warned that Kraft's hostile £10.5bn bid for Cadbury would put 30,000 jobs at risk because the US firm is weighed down by debt of £22bn. Hershey, the US chocolate company, remains the only possible rival to Kraft after Nestlé ruled itself out
Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Boris Johnson jumped to the defence of bankers, warning that a tax on bonuses could see thousands flee the capital
Photograph: Richard Saker

A worker rotates a gas turbine during assembly at the Siemens factory in Berlin, Germany. Germany's economy suffered a 5% contraction last year – its biggest annual drop in output since the second world war
Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Shares in Japan Airlines plummeted amid strong indications that the firm will file for bankruptcy (cutting 15,600 jobs in the process) and have its shares delisted
Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Anil Kumar, centre, a former McKinsey director accused of leaking information in the Galleon hedge fund insider trading case, leaves the US Federal Court in Manhattan. Reported fraud smashed the £2bn barrier for the first time last year and could top £5bn within a couple of years, with managers uncovering more theft as they clamp down on costs and cashflow in the recession
Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Workers remove the old Abbey National logo, and unveil the new Santander branding. Britain's high-street banks expect their recovery will come to a juddering halt over the next few months as a flight of retail deposits, demands that they retain more capital and the faltering economy stymie their efforts to increase lending
Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Christopher Bell, the chief executive of Ladbrokes, resigned in a sudden move that could usher in a dramatic change of strategy at Britain's second largest betting business
Photograph: David Sillitoe