Tim Treadgold

It’s not Brian Burke’s Panama hat that is causing so much trouble in Western Australia these days. It’s something far simpler – it’s the letter ‘b’ itself.

This week, as a treat for its reader, Briefcase wanted to declare this page a Burke-free zone.

It appears no-one has outwardly canvassed the possibilities raised by a simple, three-word question – was anyone trading?

Politics and investment advice are two subjects largely foreign to Briefcase.

Australians are getting used to the idea of a two-speed economy, with resource-rich Western Australia and Queensland rocketing away from the southern rust-belt states.

Regrets abound in financial markets, especially when share prices fall sharply. But what about shares that rise sharply; can anyone have regrets about that?

Conflicts of interest have been in the news lately, but mainly at the top end of town, and mainly because of internal boardroom squabbles.

If you can buy a big bottle of multi-vitamins for $20 why do some people still pay $30?There is a one-word answer: ignorance.

Perth’s overdue residential property price correction, which promises to prune 20 per cent off the value of most homes, also promises to be memorable for two other reasons – it is

Has Wesfarmers become just another tired, diversified industrial, destined for the knacker’s yard, or is it one of the best investments on the stock market, destined to disappear

If there really is a boom in Western Australia, someone forgot to tell the top Perth-based industrial companies.

It's quiz time and today’s questions is: How much financial detail should be available to shareholders in a company?

Does history repeat itself?

If cash really is king in the investment world, and the investment world is being shaken by private equity funds seeking cash to fund their debt loads, then surely the game to be

Extreme capitalists argue that private equity is the bee’s knees because it proves that markets can sometimes be wrong in valuing assets, such as Qantas.

The heirs and successors of the late Rene Rivkin are not alone in worrying about tax matters.

Secrets, as we are seeing graphically in Perth today, only have one purpose: betrayal.

Like drunks at a party, speculative share traders always say there is time for one more round before quitting.

Greed, in case you hadn’t noticed, is rampant.

“Under new management”. We’ve all seen that sign many times on an A-frame outside a business, or writ-large across a shop window.

If Charles Dickens was alive today, working as a finance journalist, he might have borrowed one of his most famous opening lines to describe last week’s events on the stock market

It can take time for really big mistakes to be recognised for what they are. Alan Carpenter’s two energy bloopers, in the name of winning votes at the next state election, are classic example of time bomb blunders which will cost Western Australia dearly

Looking for the peak is Australia’s newest national investment sport, whether it’s peak oil, peak nickel, or the peak of the stock market.

Every Australian country town has a ‘big’ something.

A pet theme of Briefcase’s, if you hadn’t noticed, is the disconnect between government and business in a rapidly changing world.

Competition is a wonderful thing, until you discover that you’re losing.

For the average Australian investor there is nothing more frustrating than trying to find someone with the guts to say whether Telstra is a buy or a sell.

On the road from Esperance to Albany there’s a factory rising from the low-lying, south-coast scrub, which will one day produce nickel but which is already acting as a red-flashin

Four years ago, only a handful of people believed that the world was heading into a resources boom.

The US is often cited as the best example of poverty in the midst of plenty.

So, it’s official. The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is a white elephant. Hands up anyone who is surprised?

Property prices have dominated conversations in Perth for the past five years.