Editor's Picks

The bankers will now feast on Treasury Wine Estates
Alan Kohler
The settlement of a long drawn-out collusion lawsuit, combined with the prospect of a bidding war for TWE, confirms that big private equity is back. Investment banks will be licking their lips.

A tapering growth trajectory will test CBA
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Flatlining growth in Commonwealth Bank's second half suggests economic uncertainty and weak consumer and business confidence are likely to weigh on the bank's future profitability.

Should Hockey’s wealth be an issue?
Rob Burgess
Labor's many career politicians hardly represent the struggles of ordinary Australians, either.

Take Australia’s unemployment rate ‘shocker’ with a grain of salt
Adam Carr
Australian society is changing and so are our work habits. Until the participation rate stabilises there's no point fretting over a small lift in the unemployment rate.

The calm before the eurozone storm
Oliver Marc Hartwich
The ECB's implicit guarantee of a bailout may have calmed the euro crisis temporarily, but it has also caused governments to become complacent with their reform agenda.

Sluggish wage growth will hit household budgets hard
Callam Pickering
A persistent decline in wages and rise in spare capacity suggest Australia's next recession will have fewer job losses than in the early '90s, but wage growth will be much weaker.

Avoiding a new era of retail electricity rip-offs
Tristan Edis
People already encounter traps in signing up to electricity contracts, so opening the market to more complex retail offerings, incorporating products like solar, batteries and smart appliances could be overwhelming. Mobile phones offer some lessons.

Get ready for a softer property market
Callam Pickering
A rising unemployment rate, subdued wage growth, and already high levels of indebtedness mean the property market is becoming less appealing for investors and home buyers alike.

How Masters became a DIY disaster for Woolworths
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Cost blowouts at its Masters business have forced Woolworths to concede that its strategy for the hardware sector was highly flawed. Ongoing losses will only further undermine its credibility.

Most read

Gold and oil are quiet … too quiet
Alan Kohler
Gold and oil prices have remained dormant despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East and growing tensions between Russia and the West. It looks like neither commodity is a reliable way to trade global tensions anymore.

Most commented

Without real reform, Hockey’s budget pain will be for nothing
Callam Pickering
Peter Costello is right to discredit the government's proposed GP co-payment. Far more rigorous reform in healthcare, aged care and tax is necessary to avoid long-term fiscal catastrophe.