Tim Treadgold

Gina Rinehart hates the label "Australia's richest person". How will she, and the rest of the country react when (not if) she ranks as the "world's richest"- as can be forecast using the latest research.

You won’t see many sights stranger than thousands of people rallying in support of a tax.

Bad news for the meat and wine industries is masking a minor miracle in the Wheatbelt where high commodity prices are breathing new life into near-dead towns.

China has become too cheap and too expensive at the same time – and something has to give.

Margaret River grape growers might hate the idea of a coal mine in their backyard, but unless the outlook for Australian wine improves they might have to change their minds.

There’s not much glamour left in the aviation industry, which is facing a tough future.

A lot happened, but nothing changed at Fortescue Metals today - but isn't that the nature of public relations spin.

The world will soon know what sort of shape the US economy is really in.

Political secession is not on WA's agenda, but financial secession certainly appears to be happening.

Export embargoes on all manner of goods could change the way the trade world works.

Australia might have a two-speed economy today, but when interest rates rise again next month only one half will be moving. The other half will be dead.

Andrew Forrest may have a big number in his ‘wealth column’, but he’s down 2-0 against an old foe.

If the mining boom is Australia's economic salvation, as we were told in last night's federal budget, why are WA and Queensland doing all the heavy lifting?

Many Australian businesses may have no qualms about trading with China, but the national government may be forced into a corner on the issue.

Price fixing is illegal. What about product pegging? If you haven't heard that expression before, get used to it because it is about to revolutionise Australian retailing.

The gold price is a remarkably accurate indicator of the state of the world economy.

If you thought the global commodities boom was running out of puff, think again. The latest analysis shows that this is not really a boom at all, it is the biggest economic revolution in the past 100 years.

The CME should be careful what it wishes for as the good times roll.

Would you like a banker permanently positioned in your boardroom, or bedroom, because that could happen if the banks lose the infamous Bell Group legal battle.

Higher-than-expected construction costs are hurting the government’s great infrastructure project – the NBN.

Too many shops! That is the awful reality for traditional retailers, and investors in retail-focused funds, because there is no hope of a sudden revival of shopping as we have known it.

Carmaker Hyundai is turning an accepted form of process management on its head in a major attack on costs and quality control.

"Doomed from the day it was conceived, and rightly so". They were the opening words used in this column five months ago about the proposed merger of the Australian and Singapore stock exchange - and they're worth repeating today.

Investors should be worried by government rumblings in Brazil about mining giant Vale.

Tipping the gold price, and the future price of gold stocks, is a mug's game, unless a clear value gap can be demonstrated - which is what appears to have been done in a rather interesting piece of recent research.

It’s best to steer clear of businesses that don’t have profit as their primary motive for existing.

Most Australians have never heard of Dutch Disease, but they will soon because it is the financial phenomena playing a key role in killing resource sector construction jobs.

The market’s response to the planned carbon tax has been instructive.

Buy when others are fearful. That piece of advice made Warren Buffett one of the world's richest people, and it could make a fortune for anyone prepared to plunge into massively discounted Australian uranium stocks.

Asset correlation has already produced some unintended consequences – and there will be more.

"Oh please, hit me again!" That's what management at the ANZ Bank ought to be saying after a conservation movement attack yesterday backfired to the tune of a $908 million profit for the bank's owners.

A gas project at Dongara could have a major effect on WA’s energy sector.