An element a of the Banach algebra A is said to be regular provided there is an element b belonging to A such that a = aba. In this note we study the set of regular elements in the Calkin algebra C(X) over an infinite-dimensional complex Banach space X.

We present two examples. One of an operator T such that ${T^n(T-I)}_{n=1}^{\infty }$ is precompact in the operator norm and the spectrum of T on the unit circle consists of an infinite number of points accumulating at 1, and the other of an operator T such that ${T^n(T-I)}_{n=1}^{\infty }$ is convergent to zero but T is not power bounded.

We consider the topological algebra of (Taylor) multipliers on spaces of real analytic functions of one variable, i.e., maps for which monomials are eigenvectors. We describe multiplicative functionals and algebra homomorphisms on that algebra as well as idempotents in it. We show that it is never a Q-algebra and never locally m-convex. In particular, we show that Taylor multiplier sequences cease to be so after most permutations.