EDITORS' PICKS

The carbon strangler
Alan Kohler
The Rudd government's emissions trading scheme has been put out of its misery with a new report strangling the economic outcomes of the program with cold reality.

Rudd's tax Trojan Horse
Alan Kohler
Instead of exposing the states' wasteful use of the GST and calling a referendum, Kevin Rudd has used health reform as a decoy to reverse the Howard government's GST gift.

Tackling dummies for Murdoch
Robert Gottliebsen
News Corporation must seriously re-evaluate its ownership of the Melbourne Storm and the National Rugby League following its salary cap shock.

Cornered by penalties
Robert Gottliebsen
The new penalty-rate regime has led a lift in the cash economy. However unlike previous decades, Fair Work Australia will ensure most businesses are caught. So what does this mean for small business?

The Goldman oxymoron
Stephen Bartholomeusz
By Wall St standards and on the basis of what is known at this point, what Goldman did was not immoral but rather modus operandi for investment banks.

Freezing the banking status quo
Stephen Bartholomeusz
The ACCC's decision to block NAB's deal with AXA APH would be defensible if all four banks were the same, or if the ruling created more competition. However, that isn't the case.

BHP corruption probe's bad timing
Karen Maley
An investigation by US regulators will be closely watched in the EU where the miner is struggling to gain approval for its Rio Pilbara deal.

The Greek Lehman
Karen Maley
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schuble has warned of the need to stop Greece becoming a "second Lehman Brothers". But with the financial situation worsening, that will come at quite a price.

KEEN'S DEBT MARCH: Crash and burn
Rob Burgess
Day seven on the road with Steve Keen, and the economist presents a worrying summation – a property market crash is the only path to sustainable economic growth for Australia.

Opening the Australia Post vault
Q&A by Isabelle Oderberg
CEO Ahmed Fahour explains why banking is not front and centre of his new plan to bring Autralia Post into the modern age, which includes harnessing the power of Australia's move to online.