Tim Treadgold

A dispute over the future of the failed Ellendale mine might not be the worst event in the downturn hurting the state’s once-brilliant diamond industry, because the much bigger Argyle mine is also facing a fresh threat to its future.

The recent travails of VW and Glencore provide a stark reminder of the limits of globalisation.

Gas, tuna, and crayfish might not seem to have a clear connection, but there is a link – and it’s one Jeff Kennett thinks might become a worry for local supermarkets and promoters of Australian food exports to Asia.

Nickel producers are waiting for one of their cohort to ‘blink’ first, as overproduction and sluggish demand threaten the sector’s viability.

Tipping the top or bottom of a market is never smart, especially at a time of volatile trading; but a series of recent events point to confidence growing in the start of a recovery in the Western Australian economy.

The wholesale supplier has lost a huge chunk of its stock market value as it battles the grocery giants.

It is hard to find a winner in the coal-mining industry these days but some investors were quick to spot a Perth-based winner yesterday in the form of Wesfarmers, which saw the value of its coal assets boosted by a deal in the Hunter Valley of NSW.

WA-based LNG Ltd has fallen back to earth as an oversupply of liquefied gas worldwide is hitting the share prices of gas-exposed stocks.

No-one in Western Australia needs to be told that the state is passing through a rough patch; it’s in their face every day.

With the resources sector in the doldrums, another of Australia’s traditional strengths – agriculture – is standing tall.

If Andrew Mackenzie and Sam Walsh are right, then Western Australia’s commodity dependent economy could be at the start of a recovery; and not before time, given the weakening state of the property market as measured by mortgage defaults.

The commodity price crash is drawing in some big-name, high-cost producers.

If Woodside Petroleum’s one-for-four share swap bid for rival LNG producer Oil Search was plan A, then plan B, when it comes, had better be a beauty, because so far no-one apart from Woodside management can say anything positive about the proposed takeover.

Growing the size of the cake, rather than squabbling over the current morsels, should have been the focus of the recent National Reform Summit.

Tipping a commodity price recovery that will boost Western Australia’s economy is a game for the brave or the foolish; and while Colin Barnett came close to being one or the other yesterday, he was actually just being premature.

Despite the pain being felt by many small investors, the Chinese-led stock market falls of the past week was a long-overdue correction.

If ever Western Australia is to have another slogan on vehicle number plates, then the favourite has to be a return to the short-lived ‘Golden State’ catchphrase.

Could the contrasting fortunes of Atlas and Elders signal the start of a rural revival?

Is it greed, ignorance or stupidity that prevents bankers from knowing when they have overstepped a moral and ethical boundary, if not a legal one?

Having already struggled through the fallout of the commodities price slump, WA could find itself emerging from its slump before other states.

Following its recent currency devaluation, a more competitive China should prove to be a good thing for Western Australia’s export industries, but there will be some pain in achieving that possible future benefit because no-one knows how other countries will react to the China surprise.

To merge or to demerge is a question that goes beyond the mining industry; it’s one that is also dividing opinions in the media world, with Australian and American publishers heading in opposite directions in what looks like a classic schism of ideas.

Banks and their customers are eagerly awaiting the next move on official interest rates in the US.

BHP Billiton’s annual profit statement to be released next month could contain a pleasant surprise for shareholders, and a nasty surprise for Australia.

Empty shopfronts in some of Perth’s high-profile retail strips are a sign of WA’s wider economic malaise.

Architects have a saying about ‘less being more’. The mining industry has flipped that around with ‘more being less’, as shown in this week’s production reports and share prices of Fortescue Metals and BHP Billiton.

Retail, not mining, has borne the brunt of the slowdown in Western Australia during the past 12 months, with a study of the state’s economy by the investment bank Goldman Sachs revealing a startling decline in retail jobs of more than 20 per cent.

A small batch of bauxite sent overseas for refining may signal the start of a much bigger play by Alcoa, which would have major consequences for WA’s South West.

There is a range of reasons why bank shares have fallen lately, some from self-inflicted injuries and some due to a changing marketplace.

There is no prize for guessing that iron ore companies have plunged to the bottom of the resources component of this year’s TSR survey; but what is interesting is the rise of uranium hopefuls, despite few signs of an imminent increase in the uranium price.

Qantas, the biggest ASX-listed company to make the top 100 using total shareholder returns as the yardstick, was also the biggest surprise, with the airline delivering an eye-catching one-year return for investors of 151 per cent.

Momentum is building for Alexium, after the award-winning tech developer initially struggled to find its feet.