X.N.

On this final week of the Alphabet Challenge, I have reached for The Oxford Writer's Dictionary, which gives a writer a fast and easy aid to usage, style and spelling. X is a tricky letter but it covers some interesting stuff like xylography, the printing of wood block books. However the random choice is… x.n. I have never heard of it, unsurprisingly, as it means 'without the right to new shares.' It belongs to a tricksy financial world (Lord of the Rings reference: I'm thinking of Mordor) which is in a galaxy far far from here (Star Wars, thinking Death Star.) On a disinterested Google search, Xn shows up as a chemical hazard code, meaning harmful, before it appears in a Reuters post about steel and stock markets.

[Cue scrunched-face thinking moment.]

I do not, actually, despise money. Currency is a sort of metaphor, where an object represents being equal in value to another, and often is composed of pleasant artifacts: notes and coins hold fascination with pictures, with history. Nor do I, even, despise business, which comes (debatably) from a division of labour within a society that can be beneficial to our quality of lives. It has an element of play that has enabled me to survive those brief sales jobs, and even that seminar on how to sell mobile phone contracts (not sure how they survived me.) One needn't sell people things they won't find useful, after all. But at that time there was no bonus available to those merchants that had the happiest customers, only quantity was to be counted. 

[Concludes simply, by nodding head and typing:]

When business folk get greedy, they ruin the game, they no longer deserve any new shares.

Taiwanese dollars are perky colours