EDITOR'S PICKS

Australia: Nil all
Alan Kohler
Queensland's coal royalties decision is just one face of the sovereign risk confronting miners as governments struggle with budget logic. In the end, no one wins.

Another double-tap to a dying super-cycle
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Announcements from Xstrata and BHP Billiton show that coal has joined iron ore in the wounded tent and that not only new projects will be victims of the mining slowdown.

The lies that blind, and mining suffers
Robert Gottliebsen
Campbell Newman and Wayne Swan must come clean and confess their revenue estimates from mining were flat out wrong. Fix the mining tax madness now, or risk losing many more jobs.

This is Bernanke's QE3, 4, 5 and 6
Stephen Koukoulas
Unless we see growth, decent job creation and a bit more inflation – especially in house prices – the Fed will keep printing money, buying bonds and doing whatever it takes to get people into work.

QE3 launched into a fiscal cliff abyss
Alexander Liddington-Cox
Ben Bernanke has pulled the QE3 trigger but until Congress sorts out America's fiscal cliff, the country's businesses are still in a nerve-wracking game of Russian roulette.

Abbott's anguish in the house Labor built
Rob Burgess
The detail of yesterday's housing story should be a wake-up call Tony Abbott. It shows the Coalition is likely to be dealing with an anaemic or bleeding housing market in two years.

Twiggy caught in a Fortescue fix
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Fortescue has been caught midstream in its expansion by the falling iron ore price and now it's in trouble. It's decision time for founder Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, and he might not like the choices.

The iPhone launch that could alter an industry
Stephen Bartholomeusz
All bets are off in the telco sector as the market waits to see which out of the three big players – Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – leverages the iPhone 5 launch to best advantage.

TECHNOLOGY SPECTATOR: iPhone 5 gets 4G right
Paul Wallbank
The thinner, lighter iPhone 5 brings 4G LTE goodness for Australian users but there is no Near Field Communications hardware.

Ferguson's energy future is now
Keith Orchison
Nothing is more important for Australia's economic future than getting the energy supply equation right. As the clock ticks, this week's white paper should spark some serious questions.

Meet Europe's leader of last resort
Oliver Marc Hartwich
The ECB has gone beyond the mandate of achieving price stability to become a fiscal decider, a job usually reserved for elected lawmakers. Democracy is on the way out.

It's a yes man's world
Robert Gottliebsen
The rise of the 'yes man', seen in recent defence force debacles, has also contributed to the current problems facing the economy.

Ireland: The little country that could
Cliona O'Dowd
For the past two years, Ireland has fought to recover its economy from the brink of ruin. Now the hard work, with a good dose of foreign investment, is starting to pay off.

China's disturbing economic data dump
Stephen Koukoulas
All of a sudden the Chinese dragon is looking decidedly anaemic. A raft of data out over the weekend shows the country is slowing just at the worst time for the global economy.

CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Abbott's abatement black hole
Ben Rose
The Coalition has a massive budget black hole from its Direct Action climate change policy. The entire costings hinge on estimates of abatement from soil carbon that are woefully researched.