EDITOR'S PICKS

Stop moaning about electricity prices
Alan Kohler
Amongst the energetic debate about rising power prices a key point is being missed – they're saving us from deflation.

Telstra's new atones for the old
Stephen Bartholomeusz
In yesterday's earnings report, Telstra's old technology-based assets continued their inexorable decline but its new technology businesses picked up the slack – and then some.

Four glaring signals of US distress
Karen Maley
Despite gains on Wall Street the American economy faces a string of problems that threaten its positive GDP print, including a raft of bad data coming out of China and Europe.

An RBA recipe for Aussie dollar relief
Stephen Koukoulas
The overvalued Australian dollar is causing havoc among trade-exposed sectors of the economy. And right now the RBA is in a plum position to help – and could start by cutting interest rates today.

Rio Tinto's spending heaven
Robert Gottliebsen
As lower minerals prices send a variety of mining projects back to the drawing board, Rio Tinto's capital expenditure plans leave it brilliantly placed to benefit.

Back to the grindstone for Rio Tinto
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Rio Tinto's solid report shows wins in iron ore, optimism on copper and losses in thermal coal and aluminium. It shows China concerns and debt doubts. Basically, it's back to business after the super profits era.

Exchanges are innovating themselves to death
Alan Kohler
To compete with high-frequency algorithms, brokers are conducting trades in 'dark pools'. It's time for transparency across the bourse.

A national network broadly on track
Stephen Bartholomeusz
The NBN is experiencing rollout delays and cost blowouts now, but as the project develops and efficiencies kick in these will be almost immaterial by the end of the 10-year project – assuming it survives past an election.

China's growth a global red herring
Stephen Koukoulas
More and more, people are turning to China's flawed GDP figures to get a reading on global growth. The best indicator of world economic activity does start with a C – but it's not China.

Reading the language of Europe's crisis
Oliver Marc Hartwich
Reporting on Europe's debt crisis is remarkably homogenous in the English-speaking West. For a deeper understanding, it is worth dipping into other languages, like German.

Gillard's hapless energy burn
Keith Orchison
The federal government needs to press harder on energy reform, but painting the states as villains is doing electricity users no favours.

Knight's armour loses its shine
Karen Maley
As Knight Capital comes to terms with massive losses due to its software glitch, market participants are worried the failure will damage already fragile investor confidence.

Pimco's 'death of equities' error
Steven Johnson
What Bill Gross missed when he recently declared the death of equities is that stock market returns are independent of underlying economic growth.

The Pilbara goes to town
Josh Kenworthy
Governments are pouring money into Pilbara townships with a view to huge growth and socio-economic benefits. But as mining investment slows, can the region meet expectations?

Webjet flies above the storm
Cliona O'Dowd
The online travel company's aggressive expansion strategy has served it well in the face of a deteriorating tourism market worldwide – and looks set to continue to do so.

A global backlash against the rich
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
As politicians across the world seek to channel chagrin over living standards pressure, an end to the era of lower taxes and deregulation that began in the late 1970 could be approaching.