Insights

Despite the fact that there has been little change in the RBA's forecasts there are some interesting comments on the Chinese housing market.

The Scottish whisky industry has had a few knocks of late, and an increasing number of nations producing their own high quality whiskies is adding to the pressure.

Heading into the APEC summit in Beijing next week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambitions are not all aligned with those of President Barack Obama.

It will be a busy week locally, with the latest home loan data and NAB business survey released, while China will also be in focus as the APEC summit kicks off.

In this week's essential reading guide, Kohler outlines how algorithms are changing our lives, Bartholomeusz assesses APRA's need for money and Gottliebsen delves into the commodity export rout.

Taxes, elections and Christmas. We've got it all here.

The planned data retention laws won't catch the real criminals and should be viewed suspiciously.

Whether steered by the United States or China, an Asia-Pacific FTA would still result in a fragmented world trade system.

Beijing is worried that the convergence of a Uighur diaspora and jihadist influence could pose a serious threat to China's national security.

The economic outlook hasn't changed over the past three months, but neither has the uncertainty surrounding that outlook.

To date, just three companies have received a strike in this year's AGM season, and it's all down to better shareholder engagement.

In holding out for cheaper LNG pricing, Asian buyers could be shooting themselves in both feet by causing gas supply projects to be delayed.

The success of the Rift is now out of Oculus' hands. Mark Zuckerberg's $2 billion gamble on virtual reality now hinges on the whims of third party developers and hyped-up gamers.

While the topic of IT security was once technically obscure and of little interest to the running of a large organisation's business operations, the mood in the boardroom is starting to change.

In September of this year, several manufacturers released bulbs surpassing 100 lumens per watt - more than five-times traditional LED ratings - but they remain often the most expensive bulbs on the shelf.

In spite of their talk, coal companies are not major contributors to energy poverty alleviation efforts. When they do contribute, it is ironically with support for energy sources other than coal.