Tim Treadgold

When bank deposit rates are less than 3 per cent it’s hard to resist the siren call of an investment opportunity being spruiked at 20 per cent, which is why investors are rushing into residential property – and why many of them will get badly burned.

Low interest rates and banks’ enthusiasm to lend money are two factors driving the heating housing market.

You don't have to be in retail to know that times are tough for shopkeepers, their staff and their landlords, but what you might not know is that conditions are probably going to get worse before they get better.

Exotic and minor metals are never a natural fit for small mining companies, a fact discovered by shareholders in struggling lithium producer Galaxy Resources, and a threat that hovers over the head

Late storms are one way of looking at WA’s “winter of discontent”.

Western Australia's biggest home-grown company, Wesfarmers, is poised to deliver stellar returns to shareholders, or slump alarmingly.

There is nothing more boring than a conversation about the weather but, in the case of a United Nations climate change report scheduled for release next week, there are significant business factors

Unless some of the smartest people in the financial world are misreading their tea leaves, Australia’s new prime minister, Tony Abbott, has done more than win an election – he’s won the keys to a new era of solid economic growth.

Government-backed schemes to develop renewable power supplies are coming unstuck as the price of traditional energy sources falls.

The federal government has invoked the ‘law of unexpected consequences’ with its new bank levy.

Record low interest rates are contributing to the surprising increase in Perth’s property prices.

When an asset achieves the status of ‘fair value’ it generally ceases to be news, which is probably why no-one has been talking about the Australian dollar reaching that point against the US dollar

Strong June quarter production data have confirmed iron ore as the one bright spot in Western Australia's troubled mining sector, though for how much longer is the critical question for the industr

Clive Palmer got more than he bargained for when he decided to enter the political arena.

During a previous economic downturn a Sydney-based banker asked of Western Australia: “has everyone stopped eating over there?”

We can expect more cutbacks at state and federal levels, as governments shed staff to save costs.

The rapid change to a deflating economy will be difficult for some, but offer opportunities for others.

CHINA slashed its demand for iron ore exactly a year ago, triggering a collapse in the share prices of Australian mining companies.

The degree to which we, in Australia, control our economic destiny is exaggerated.

WHAT do you call a person who makes the same mistake year after year? ‘Fool’ is one suggestion, and it seems the same description certainly applies to governments.

Look carefully through the gloom of a sputtering local economy, mine closures, ballooning state debt and rising unemployment and you might catch a glimpse of the first signs of next year’s recovery

Whatever else is revealed in tonight’s federal budget there is one thing I hope for – an end to the nonsense of ‘modelling’, because it is painfully obvious that modelling is nothing more than mode

The heat of a faux election campaign is the wrong time to make major economic decisions such as that relating to the NDIS.

Australia’s tightrope walk between long-time friend and ally, the US, and newfound customer for mining and energy exports, China, is back on the political agenda thanks to issues raised in a talk a

No farmer would ever invite a fox into his hen-house, but a close look over the past few days at the strategic link forged by the one-time Australian flag-carrier, Qantas Airways, with Dubai-based

Westpac’s latest national economic analysis tips a slowdown in growth, something for which it seems not many are prepared.

Australia’s dollar ought to be falling, a point underlined today by another weak analysis of manufacturing, but any hope of relief for manufacturing, mining or agriculture has been killed by events in Cyprus and the flood of capital pouring out of Europe into safer places, including Australia.

It’s no surprise Chinese investors in Australia’s resources sector want to maximise their opportunities, but the outcomes won’t always be favourable for the locals.

Forget the politics. Focus on the money.

The rising markets may be a false dawn, with two top economists, whose warnings were ignored before the GFC, ringing alarm bells again.

Bankers might have caused the never-ending global financial crisis but it is politicians who are perpetuating it as the latest European farce, a raid on bank accounts held in Cyprus, so brilliantly

The reality on future iron ore prices may be somewhere in the middle of the most dire predictions and those of the eternal optimists.