There may be a recession but the Carrigstown residents have their eyes on the prize.

Luke may have returned with other things on his mind but he wasted no time in finding an opportunity to make money and Yvonne, Pete and Damien have all gone along for the ride. Yvonne meanwhile continues to manage Vinos and has taken on responsibility for Louie's interest in McCoy's.

No doubt Yvonne is being rewarded for her efforts with McCoy's as she certainly wouldn't be doing it out of the goodness of her heart. She even tried to gain control of her mother's house for her own benefit or was she really thinking of Bela? But then is there really any room for sentiment in business?

I think we know how Eddie would answer that question. Eddie seems to be emerging from his courier business and slowly getting back into the financial world. Whether this is legal or not, Eddie has speculated to accumulate. Boredom and frustration drove him to get a loan from Flynn, which was never going to be a good idea, but Eddie seems to be making it work.

Having spent Christmas schmoozing the locals, Wayne was the first to buy into Eddie's offer of fast, easy money. Always the cool customer, Eddie played hard to get, insisting that Wayne should be cautious. Eddie knew what he was up to though and reeled Wayne in. The same approach seems to have worked on Esther too.

Wayne always has his eye out for a deal and after a rough patch in the Station and with his "cosmetic business", Wayne seems to have landed on his feet in the garage. In fact, Wayne's successes have spurred Paul on. The competition seems to be motivating Paul to forget the rut he was in and move on in the name of beating Wayne. With a major coup in his car sale and a large profit under Wayne's belt, talk of investing money with a financial whiz kid has piqued Paul's interest.

Eddie for his part seems delighted to have the chance to expand his client portfolio, even if it isn't strictly by the books. But how much will Paul risk in order to get ahead of Wayne and can Eddie's hot streak really go on? Money may make the world go around and Eddie's investments may be hot property but are these Carrigstown residents playing with fire?

Tweet your thoughts to @RTEfaircity