Suresh Rajan

UP TO recent times Van Eyk, Assirt and Morning Star have dominated the research provider market.These companies have provided investment advisers and financial professionals with the research to assess investment and managed funds.

FINANCIAL commentator Peter Moore’s basic view of the New Economy is simple and unambiguous.“There is no option for the serious investor but to invest in the new economy,” he says.

THE September quarter 2000 international trade data for Australian states shows WA is still producing the highest value of exports in Australia.

INTEREST rates will not rise simply to shore up the dollar.Reserve Bank of Australia Governor, Ian Macfarlane, in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, said the RBA had “no intention of departing from our medium-term approach

Weekly commentaryEconomy: The era of fiscal prudence under the Clinton Administration is more than likely coming to an end.The US government has retired US$450b in debt over the past four years.

A FEW economists have started talking about the possibility of the RBA actually easing rates at its next meeting.There are three conditions that could lead the RBA to lower rates:

FOR months we have advocated the need for Telstra to demonstrate to the market that it was clear about the need for management change.

WHEN a website calls itself www.findmysuper.com it is fairly obvious what the site aims to do.

JOHN Dorfman, a financial journalist for Bloomberg News Services, has released his explanation of some of the terms he comes across regularly.

THE inflation figures released this week surprised analysts and economists and, no doubt, Treasury.

Economy: The Australian economy continues to perform strongly growing between 4 per cent and 5 per cent per annum. Solid growth during the first half of 2000 kept the annual rate of rise in growth at 4.7 per cent pace.

THURSDAY is the day that Telstra 2 shareholders need to make their second payment.

Economy: Latest US economic data continues to point to a slowdown in economic activity as higher interest rates and oil prices bite into consumer spending.

THIS IS going to be a big week for markets to absorb and will help determine the direction of interest rates in Australia and the US.

THE Australian Securities and Investments Commiss-ion’s website lists the following tips for reading an annual report of a high tech company.

IT HAS been at least three years since economists and analysts started calling for the surpluses created by the sale of government assets during the past decade be used to reduce government debt rather than for increased spending opportunities.

Economy: The A$ continues to come under pressure from a strong US$ and growing concerns about a slowdown in world growth as high oil prices and tighter world monetary policy begin to bite. The RBA and US Federal Reserve both decided to leave official inte

AUSTRALIA has not experienced the end of the tightening interest rate cycle, according to Westpac.Its core view had been for two Reserve Bank increases of 0.25 per cent each in October and November.

THE proposed Federal law relating to pre-marital financial agreements has huge implications for financial advisers and accountants.The proposed law will enable couples, before, during or after marriage, to make binding financial agreements in relation t

CONSUMPTION data released recently continues to confuse experts.Consumer spending patterns are difficult to interpret as the economy adjusts to the new tax system.

THE Federal Minister for Family and Community Services, Jocelyn Newman, has announced an amnesty for Social Security recipients who have failed to declare their foreign pensions to Centrelink.

RESERVE Bank intervention could return some sanity to the currency market, according to David Hudson, chairman of the asset allocation committee of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

AT A time when bank fees are escalating at an astronomical rate there is yet another orgy of rewarding salaries and options being paid to chief executives of major banks.The latest is the Commonwealth Bank. Its shareholders will meet next month to decid

Weekly commentaryEconomy: The continuing rise in the US$ and world oil prices is now placing significant pressure on the world economy and if maintained are likely to lead to significant slowdown in world economic growth in 2001. Oil prices paid in Eu

ABOUT one quarter of superannuation fund investors in Australia did not have their tax file numbers recorded, according to a survey by licensed securities dealer Count Wealth Accountants.

CREDIT card fraud was becoming easier to detect following the introduction of a software package that identifies transactions which are different to the customer’s usual spending patterns, according to National Australia Bank.PRISM was introduced by the

ANYONE who professes to know where the Aussie dollar is headed would only be kidding themselves or their audience.After the Prague meeting of the finance ministers of G7, it announced to the world that it intended to do something about the weakening Eur

THERE are two one-off non-taxable bonuses this year for older Australians with lower incomes, to help them maintain the value of their savings and retirement incomes and to compensate for the effects of the GST.

THE 1980s and 90s can best be characterised as the period in which the face of financial services changed completely.Life was easy to that point with most of us looking to banks for the provision of simple banking products and some peripheral items tha

WONDERED which asset classes are the best performing class in any one-year period?Wondered why financial planners keep telling you to diversify your portfolio?It is interesting to note the variation in returns can be quite phenomenal. (See table lef

THERE is an upside impact of the oil price!Researchers at Credit Suisse First Boston believe the escalating oil price will stabilise the US economy.

TWO months of the GST has given us time to look back to see what the impact has been.