Comment & Analysis
Property Monitor
Picking suburb hot spots
MATTHEW BELL What makes a property hot spot? We're regularly asked at APM to pick
Malcolm Maiden
Stokes the deciding stake
Stokes is cementing his control of Seven, not distancing himself, and his son Ryan is rising behind him.
Ian Verrender
Caliburn partners are reading the tea leaves
Unless you have been hiding under a very large rock for the past year and a half, you no doubt would have gathered the impression that the Australian economy is a shining beacon in an otherwise very dark world.
Adele Ferguson
Investors fume over toothless watchdog
Almost three-quarters of Australian retail investors have lost faith in the corporate regulator, our newest Investor Pulse survey reveals.
Ross Gittins
Reserve should nip rising house prices in the bud
I have no idea whether the next rise in the official interest rate will come at the Reserve Bank board's meeting in three weeks or a month later. But if I were governor I wouldn't be dragging my feet.
Stephen Mayne
BHP: the big (semi-)Australian
Don Argus may have got a gong for his services as chairman of BHP Billiton but how Australian is the world's biggest miner?
Elizabeth Knight
The $50m defence fee: anything but ordinary
There is not much sympathy in the broader community for investment banks - and there certainly won't be too much for JP Morgan. Yesterday it lost a court case in which it claimed resource company Consolidated Minerals had short-changed it $30 million on advisory fees for a takeover.
Tim Colebatch
Economic recovery more a simmer than a boil
The RBA is forecasting a more or less normal year for Australia. Treasury is more wary, but positive.
Garimpeiro
Manganese explorers on the march
If tear-away demand for iron ore and coking coal has returned, the same can be said for manganese.
Max Newnham
Restricted access: when and how to dip into your super
Access to superannuation is heavily restricted. In addition to age restrictions there are also restrictions depending on the type of superannuation a person has.
Christopher Webb
Beregi takes credit for turning debt collector around
Listed debt collectors in recent years have had a rough time of it on the sharemarket and have been very much out of favour.
Insider
No room in cocoon for thread maker
Twelve months ago "cocooning" was a popular topic. Shell-shocked by financial crisis and economic slowdown, we were meant to be eating home-cooked meals and staying in to watch television, while sewing our own clothes.
Planet Wall Street
This Keen professor overlooked by MSM
How one of our premier economists can find an audience of 250 million but pass unremarked by our business press.
CBD
Now this is a seat Nicolaou might win
The Liberal Party candidate who lost the byelection of John Brogden's vacated seat of Pittwater in 2005 and failed to take the electorate of Ryde in the 2003 state election has been given the chance to campaign for another seat.
Leon Gettler
Facing up to Facebook
With social media sites now so mainstream, companies must develop policies around their use.
Kenneth Davidson
Broadband madness: how to waste $43bn
There is no business sense in the national broadband network.
Michael Pascoe
Beware the privatised monopoly gouge
The indications are that the sun might rise in the east, bikini models dating sports stars might attract tabloid attention and airport car-parking charges might reflect an element of monopoly rent.
Danny John
It's back to the basics for IAG
After a torrid last four years, there are - at last - signs that Insurance Australia Group is getting its act together and behaving like an insurer should do.
Harold Mitchell
How networking paid off for the game of games
Sport and Melbourne have been linked since June 8, 1835, when John Batman sailed up the Yarra looking for a place for a village.
Ian McIlwraith
By way of a brief aid to reading IPO boilerplate
Prospectuses and fast-food ads have in common that they are both inducements to bite without thinking.
Julian Lee
Say rack off to tired, old Australiana
If 'say G'day to the lucky country' ever does see the light of day as a tagline to support a new global brand for Australia, then I think we can all pack up and go home.
Ruth Williams
NAB banks on a pre-emptive superannuation strategy
The bank is positioning to become the giant of the super sector.
John Garnaut
China, the intangible
Impartial, credible analysis on China is tough to find, with severe implications for the global financial system.
David Symons
Southern Cross may be a relative bargain
One of the final steps in the deconstruction of Macquarie Group's collection of satellite funds unfolded yesterday.
Paddy Manning
Future's not looking sunny
Solar energy is a minor player in meeting our growing power needs.
Eric Johnston
Brighter times for Suncorp
Last year the perfect storm hit Suncorp, now clearer skies have been helping - but parts of the business are still causing headaches.
Michael West
Macquarie's bad child fights back
Pass the smelling salts. The independent directors of Macquarie Infrastructure Group have stood up to the mothership.
Leonie Wood
Watchdog's AWB case appears close to derailing
The kickbacks scandal has left reputations in its wake, yet no one has been held legally responsible.
Collins & Spencer
Temperature rises in Bill Express grilling
The public examination of the $250 million collapse of Bill Express is heating up, and not just in the courtroom.
Marcus Padley
Beat the odds when you go back to basics
Looking for the dream run … you've got to be dreaming.
Saul Eslake
Populate or stagnate
Business and government must do more to convince Australians about the benefits of population growth.
Stuart Washington
ASIC must move quickly on Trio fund
When there are two sets of accounts with widely varying outcomes it is hard to avoid an ugly possibility: some form of fraud has been afoot. This is the proposition investigators of Trio Capital are now examining when it comes to one fund managed by Trio, the ARP Growth fund.
Michael Evans
Note of caution for Seven investors
Caterpillar proves a wriggly commodity for heavy-equipment dealers.
