Alan Kohler is one of Australia’s most experienced commentators and journalists. Alan is the founder of Eureka Report, Australia’s most successful investment newsletter, and Business Spectator, a 24-hour free business news and commentary website. He also hosts Inside Business, a half-hour Sunday programme on the ABC, is the finance presenter on the ABC News - and producer of the nightly graph (or two).
Quantitative easing is not just a simple extension of conventional monetary policy and its eventual unwind is less dangerous than financial markets think.
Private equity investors are looking to coal mines for their next big win. If they can turnaround chronic mismanagement they'll set an example for other industries.
Shares in the engineering and mining services company lifted today after NBN Co awarded it $366 million worth of contract extensions for the broadband rollout.
Kevin Rudd's camp has employed crude methods to promote the worthy cause of a post-union party – inadvertently adding an ironic twist to Labor's misogyny concerns.
Labor is due for a comeuppance at the election but Julia Gillard's political failings are just one of the party's crimes to come out of this wayward parliament.
Shares in the engineering and mining services company lifted today after NBN Co awarded it $366 million worth of contract extensions for the broadband rollout.
Vodafone's 4G network is a step in the right direction for Australia's number three telco and could yet allow it to accomplish the impossible... a comeback.
While the lack of attendees at the anti-wind protest in Canberra left MC Alan Jones a bit underwhelmed, a hastily organised pro-wind rally nearby had more than six times the number of attendees.
As Russia and its allies block climate talks there's hope that America might finally do something. Elsewhere, Warren Buffett continues to back renewables, it's the end of a solar era in Italy, Japan shows signs of slowing down and the EU carbon price lifts again.
CEOs outline changing views on corporate spending and profits, their economic expectations and political dissatisfaction, including advice for Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.
UK-based Zeebox wants to be the intermediary for all social media-television interactions. It will not only have to lure viewers, but the networks themselves.
Kevin Rudd's camp has employed crude methods to promote the worthy cause of a post-union party – inadvertently adding an ironic twist to Labor's misogyny concerns.
Labor powerbroker Bill Shorten is stuck between a rock and a hard place where, despite temptations, he is best served to stay the course until September 14.
Wayne Swan seems to think he can create a shining legacy as Treasurer if the economy can just hold together until the election. In reality its performance under the next government will be his biggest test.
Yesterday was the moment Julia Gillard's 'gender card' became a liability rather than an asset, as she herself turned women's health into a political plaything.
Pigs would have to fly backwards before Kevin Rudd led Labor to the September election, and such speculation by the media only confirms a dearth of real policy analysis.
The more bad economic news between now and September, the better for Tony Abbott. His trick will be to lock in a post-election upturn, and a double dissolution may complicate his position.
Our politicians have been happily doing policy acrobatics, attacking visa holders and economic thinkers while throwing pies at each other. None of this falls under the category of 'work'.
With Labor now almost certainly sticking to its guns on climate policy, Tony Abbott seems destined for a double dissolution amid rising support for carbon pricing.
As Australia wakes up to the end of its Chinese-led resources boom, a future Coalition government would not be able to slash spending as hard as it may wish to.
The government's dream of dropping carbon emissions 5 per cent by 2020 is in real danger of becoming a lie under a Coalition that will say Labor spent all the money to avoid investment in renewables.
Tony Abbott's suggestion that national disability scheme bureaucrats be used to fill Geelong's economic hole left by the Ford closure is clever, but also unlikely and confusing.
There is room for reform at the nation's tax office but Joe Hockey's proposal to knock tax administration and policing into place could be counterproductive.
Both sides of politics have an interest in pretending Australian prosperity was their handiwork. But before long, global headwinds will reveal Australia’s true position.
Lack of federal budget transparency has allowed profligacy on both sides of politics, and while the Coalition has a plan for reform its hopes for a revenue jump are shaky.
Lawns are green again and voters have gone cool on climate change. So much so, says Rob Oakeshott, it may not matter to them if Labor gets behind Tony Abbott’s plan.
Martin Parkinson deserves far less censure for fiscal errors than Wayne Swan but there’s little he can say on that matter – or to show what a tough time the Coalition will have with its own forecasts.
Had Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd got the right set of numbers, today’s budget would look vastly different. But the gamble Tony Abbott has planned for next year may be just as big as this government’s.
With one tax structure tweak, Anthony Albanese has opened the way for the next government to reduce Australia’s infrastructure backlog and unlock superannuation investment on big projects.
