Tim Treadgold

Apart from Adelaide roots, Julia Gillard and Rupert Murdoch share something else in common; they are living examples of crisis management - with one doing it well, and the other not.

Is Tasmania Australia's 'Greece'? The numbers appear eerily similar.

Business is not just about making money, as a former Chinese Ambassador to Australia said yesterday. There is a moral dimension - as Rupert Murdoch is discovering.

Current events are exposing the limits of globalisation.

Voters appear to be abandoning the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and her rush to introduce a carbon tax. Money is just ignoring her.

What’s the connection between a light metal, fruit juice and a US-based economist?

"Who killed Australia's mining industry" is not a question being asked today, though it could soon be, judging by a flood of recent evidence.

It looks like a case of ‘owners sit tight, buyers get ready’ in local property for the next two years.

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.