Business Spectator

Business Spectator was a business news site dedicated to offering readers the most up-to-date market news along with insightful commentary from some of Australia’s most respected journalists. It was integrated into The Australian newspaper in April 2016.

Business Spectator

Home is where the money is

07/04/2011
I had a doctor’s appointment last week. Usually that would not be worth mentioning in this column were it not for what I learnt about my doctor’s family history.

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Business Spectator

Britain’s debt time bomb is still ticking

31/03/2011
It must have been a seminal event judging by the coverage it received in British newspapers. The tabloid The Sun dedicated seven pages to it. The Daily Telegraph provided 16 pages of reports and commentary, The Guardian 23 pages and The Financial Times, not to be outdone, a full 26 pages. Few occasions would ever justify such journalistic lengths. So had Her Majesty abdicated? Were Martians about to invade Scotland? Had the English soccer team finally won a penalty shoot-out against Germany?

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Business Spectator

The hysterical republic

24/03/2011
The narcissist Germans increasingly behave like ill-mannered children on the international stage. Perhaps it would be wise to treat them like that. And ignore them.

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Business Spectator

A plan that will damage Europe

17/03/2011
You would think that the transformation of the European Union into a transfer union, the extension of the rescue facility for the continent’s fragile currency by a few hundred billion dollars, and new policy dictates to struggling economies like Greece would be of some interest to the wider public.

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Business Spectator

New Zealand is in a dangerous debt spiral

10/03/2011
The financial crisis has made us remember some half-forgotten truths. One of them is that countries with negative net foreign assets and large government liabilities are in danger of being shut out of capital markets.

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Business Spectator

The ascent of lying

01/03/2011
Our political leaders’ sometimes strained relationship with the truth pales into insignificance when compared with the extent of fraud and deceit on display at the highest level of government in Germany. It is the affair of a man with many names: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, the German Minister of Defence.

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Business Spectator

Farewell to Europe’s old guard

17/02/2011
ast week’s unexpected resignation of Bundesbank president Axel Weber sent shockwaves through the German government. It reignites the debate about the best way to deal with the euro crisis, the policies of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Germany’s role within European Monetary Union. It also poses questions about an institution that was once regarded as the best central bank in the world.

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Business Spectator

A housing market whodunit

10/02/2011
The strong link between local government finance and housing development fully explains why German and Swiss house prices have been steady for decades. To say it with Sherlock Holmes, improbable as it seems “all other explanations are more improbable still”. If Australians really cared for making housing more affordable in the long run, they should be studying the German and Swiss experiences more closely.

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Business Spectator

The cult of Australian property

03/02/2011
The theory of an Australian housing market bubble shows all signs of a proper religion. There are rituals like the recurring publication of house price indices. There are miracles when house prices rise despite interest rate hikes. Then there are true believers in the theory that Australian house prices are not in any way exaggerated. And finally there are heretics who take great pleasure in questioning just that.

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