Business Spectator
News and interviews on Business spectator including trends, features, blogs and community conversations from an Australian business perspective.
The perfect storm hitting retailers: GottliebsenWednesday, 08 December 2010
Commentators and politicians often fall into the trap of thinking that the corporate giants represent the business community. They don't. The engine room of Australian business is the myriad of medium and smaller-sized businesses (SMEs), so what they are doing ...
Construction work continues to fall in November, RBA to quiz NAB over technical glitch: Economy Roundup
Tuesday, 07 December 2010
Activity in the construction sector contracted for a sixth consecutive month during November, according to the latest Australian Industry Group-Housing Industry Association construction index. ...
Google’s growth model is broken: Tony Faure
Tuesday, 07 December 2010
Groupon's apparent decision to rebuff a $6 billion takeover from Google begs many interesting questions, the answers to which will determine how the digital landscape looks a few years from now. If Google cannot acquire the companies that will fuel 'hyper' ...
Why it’s time to look at quotas for female directors: Kohler
Monday, 06 December 2010
The debate about mandatory quotas for the number of female company directors has heated up again with comments from Heather Ridout and Elizabeth Proust. Both said they used to be against quotas, but now they are in favour of them. ...
Services sector contracts in November, US economy tipped to improve: Economy Roundup
Friday, 03 December 2010
The services sector continued to contract in November as companies said higher interest rates impacted sales and confidence, according to the latest Australian Industry Group-Commonwealth Bank performance of services index. ...
The problems with Wayne Swan’s fifth banking pillar: Bartholomeusz
Friday, 03 December 2010
If even some of the various reports today about the measures Wayne Swan is planning to create his "fifth pillar" to discipline the major banks are correct, the argument for a proper inquiry into competition in the financial system has become even stronger. ...
ATOs stance on private equity profits still a sticking point: Bartholomeusz
Thursday, 02 December 2010
It has taken the Australian Taxation Office 12 months to come to the same conclusion about the structure TPG used to shift the $1.5 billion of profits it made from floating Myer to the Cayman Islands as it did a year ago. In the meantime, the private equity ...
How rising rents could put downward pressure on interest rates: Karen Maley
Wednesday, 01 December 2010
Viewers of the Channel Nine renovation series, The Block, recently got a first-hand experience of just how treacherous Sydney's property market can be. ...
How Ireland is exporting financial fear around the world: Maley
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Global financial markets are in for a turbulent time as investors worry that the eurozone sovereign debt crisis has now gone viral, and is threatening to claim further debt-laden victims. ...
Will Australia follow Ireland? Kohler
Monday, 29 November 2010
Ireland's misery carries lessons for all, but especially for Australia. ...
Conroy's two tier TV strategy still protects free-to-air moguls: Bartholomeusz
Friday, 26 November 2010
Stephen Conroy's proposal for a revised anti-siphoning list may still be heavily compromised by the desire to protect and pander to the free-to-air networks but it is, at least, less compromised than the status quo. ...
Telstra will pay a big price for Conroy’s NBN victory: Gottliebsen
Thursday, 25 November 2010
When Stephen Conroy became Minister for Communications in the Rudd government he has an overriding aim – he wanted to be remembered as the person who delivered a national broadband network for Australia. And despite vigorous opposition he pursued that goal ...
Our banks have a $4 billion exposure to Ireland’s mess: Maley
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Australian banks could face hefty losses on their $4 billion of loans to Ireland, as part of the restructuring of the country's failed banking system. ...
How people power is changing business: Gottliebsen
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
News Corporation and BHP Billiton global lawyers and executives have been completely wrong-footed in Europe and North America by the decisions of politicians and regulators to abandon precedent and make decisions based on community views. ...
Media faces the challenge of adding real value: Kohler
Monday, 22 November 2010
In many ways Alan Rusbridger's Andrew Olle Memorial lecture on Friday provided a more believable roadmap for journalism than the Murdoch plan for pay walls, but neither side of this argument suffers from a deficit of optimism. ...
Telstra confirms full-year guidance, New $100 million solar fund launched: Economy Roundup
Friday, 19 November 2010
Telco giant Telstra has reaffirmed its full-year guidance, but says despite a lift in consumer numbers its earnings growth will fall in the first half of the year. ...
Placing clamps on the banks could hurt the property market: Gottliebsen
Friday, 19 November 2010
I am not sure that the chairman of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Rob Johanson, fully grasped the power and potential impact of the words he used in his KGB interview. ...
America’s flood of money is damaging the global economy: Gottliebsen
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Last night's US economic statistics make you understand why the Chinese are so mad with the Americans. ...
Why the RBA deserves to cop some heat over the banks' big rate rises: Bartholomeusz
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
The Reserve Bank's minutes of its Cup Day board meeting have confirmed what any reasonably intelligent observer of the bank – which means few of those politicians currently railing against bank profits – would already have concluded. The RBA expected the major ...
Telco veterans call on independent MPs to back NBN cost-benefit analysis
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
A group of telco veterans including AAPT chief Paul Broad and Pipe Networks founder Bevan Slattery have called on the independent members of parliament to support new legislation calling for the Productivity Commission to conduct a cost benefit analysts of ...
