EDITOR'S PICKS
Union leaders will be tempted to vote for Abbott
Alan Kohler - Election 2013
Unions are in desperate need of another pick-me-up like John Howard’s WorkChoices. But imagine if Kevin Rudd won… he’d give a decisive prod to the unions’ steady decline.
The Piffle statement
Alan Kohler - Election 2013
The PEFO’s return to surplus is obviously based on false assumptions, but what’s a non-core promise or two between national leaders and their voters?
Beware the mother of all housing booms
Robert Gottliebsen
Australians are rushing for bricks and mortar as they've always done in times like this. With interest rates low but banks wary, the market is set to blow up.
Writing's on the wall for a Leighton showdown
Robert Gottliebsen
A Coalition government’s plans to boost infrastructure competition would put it on a quick collision course with Leighton’s new ‘growth by margins’ strategy.
Why cash-filled Commonwealth is hedging its bets
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Commonwealth Bank's investments in technology and productivity have driven impressive results, but the failure to pay a special dividend reinforces some nervousness about its outlook.
Shopping bags the bucks for Wesfarmers
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Wesfarmers’ latest results show a great recovery in its retail brands – and will shore up confidence in its increasing reliance on that arm of the business.
Europe has added concrete to its recovery
Stephen Koukoulas
Output gaps in Europe are large, but any recovery must begin with a single quarter of positive growth. Now the region now has a solid foothold to climb out.
A Rudd-slide in the wrong direction
Rob Burgess - Election 2013
Polling data collected exclusively for Business Spectator shows which streets and issues will decide the election... and the results to date are tighter for Kevin Rudd than was thought.
Will Labor hand Abbott the weapon he needs?
Rob Burgess - Election 2013
Tony Abbott's newly unequivocal declaration against minority government is actually a push for control of the Senate. It's aimed at turning Labor into a Greens executioner.
Roll up for the great Rudd referendum
Michael Gawenda - Election 2013
Tony Abbott can lie safe in the knowledge that all other issues this election, including his economic management, will pale in the face of the fact that this is a poll on Kevin Rudd.
A commodity cure for economic ills?
Stephen Koukoulas
Amid the doom and gloom of Canberra’s economic outlook, commodity prices are stealthily rising and the global economy picking up steam. If these trends continue 2014 may be better than expected.
New weeds choke Europe’s green shoots
Oliver Marc Hartwich
The eurozone’s miniscule growth was still unevenly spread between expanding and contracting countries, and the Bundesbank predicts another Greek bailout by early 2014.
Abbott’s infrastructure tunnel vision
Tristan Edis
Tony Abbott says he wants to be known as the Infrastructure Prime Minister, but his obsession with roads and rejection of urban rail is inconsistent with 21st century trends.
China bears lumber back to their caves
Geoff Raby
As bears quiet their growls in wake of the latest Chinese figures, they’re showing just how wrongly the rebalancing debate is on focused short-term data.
Fiddling with 1GB while the NBN burns?
Rob Burgess - Election 2013
As Malcolm Turnbull keeps technical issues at the centre of the broadband speed debate, the absence of an NBN Co rollout update is gaping.