Insights

To survive, small businesses are avoiding penalty rates by making special staff agreements on hourly rates and cash payment. The young and old must play by the new rules, or they'll miss out.

Strong winds and historically low demand saw wholesale power prices drop markedly yesterday - with the oversupply also affecting Brisbane hub gas prices.

A surging greenback will likely see increasing market volatility around the globe, but in Australia we could also see the broader economy take a sizeable hit.

Lorna Jane pulls the plug on auction proceedings, while Glencore and Rio Tinto may look to merge their NSW coal operations.

Bill Shorten had a prime opportunity to sell the ETS plan Labor would take to the next election, but Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd got in his way.

Wall Street fell on disappointing consumer confidence data, while European shares gained on ECB stimulus prospects.

The precise psychological context of 9/11's market rout will never be repeated, but long-term risks remain.

The International Energy Agency projects that solar could be cheaper than coal, but it hinges on clear, stable policy. Meanwhile, Australian investors representing $1 trillion in funds have warned Prime Minister Abbott he's about to trash precisely that.

The advantages of flexibility are well appreciated so what's stopping more people from reaping the huge benefits of working remotely?

Thousands of Hong Kong citizens have taken to the streets to protest against China's electoral reform package. But Hong Kong will need more than a freely elected chief executive to tackle its political crisis.

Claims that a large chunk of Australia's top companies are avoiding tax are completely baseless, and many of them aren't even Australian.

The energy agency sees a 2050 with PV contributing 16% and concentrated solar - after an equatorial boom - tipping in 11% of the world's electricity supply, making solar the dominant energy source.

One of the main objectives of the Abbott Government's energy green paper - increasing coal use, via Asia, over coming decades - is diametrically opposed to the policies needed to limit warming below 2 degrees.

Contrary to widely held beliefs, the world has not yet begun to deleverage following record crisis-linked borrowing. Global debt-to-GDP continues to rise, setting some countries up for a hard fall in the future.

Natural-language conversations with computers aren't new but there's something a little special about Amelia.

Australian research has found the nation's hottest year - including the hottest day, spring, summer and month - was virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused global warming.