2008 July:   Business
Anchor:   Base Index
Other months:    June  August
Other areas:    Climate  computing  education  health  international  Internet  science  social  technology  Others
Topics:   Agriculture  banking  carbon  climate  competition  consultancy  consumerism  copyright  corruption  economics  environment  fraud  free trade  freight  globalism  management  manufacturing  marketing  media  money  newspapers  outsourcing  pay  policy  politics  privatism  publishing  social  television  trademarks  wealth
Carbon(see also in Climate: Mitigation and National) last  down  top   back  on

Roger Harrabin, UK in 'delusion' over emissions, BBC, 2008 July 31 (the UK has been living under a delusion over its claim to be cutting greenhouse gases, according to two reports)
Ross Gittens, Economy in climate of changes, The Age, 2008 July 26 (as the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, was at pains to emphasise in her speech to the Australian Business Economists this week, the centrepiece of the Rudd Government's economic reform agenda is its carbon pollution reduction scheme)
Cathy Alexander, Cut power now, households urged, The Age, 2008 July 25 (the electricity industry has called on households to start cutting their power use now to get ready for emissions trading)
Andrew Simms, Climate crisis: Roosevelt revisited, BBC, 2008 July 21 (a Green New Deal could sort climate, energy and banking)
Ross Gittens, Carbon trading scheme is not hot air, The Age, 2008 July 12 (a well-structured emissions credits program will have economic benefits)
John Freebairn, Carbon intensity is the stressor of the future, The Age, 2008 July 10 (carbon trading, once released into the atmosphere, will filter through to all prices)
Nick Renton, Proposed carbon tax fails to make the connection, The Age, 2008 July 9 (Ross Garnaut has recommended a politically useful but practically useless tax)
Orietta Guerrera, Carbon dioxide burial reaches a milestone, The Age, 2008 July 7 (it is technology vital to the Government's hopes of cutting greenhouse emissions from Australia's huge coal-fired power stations)
Melissa Fyfe, Victoria: it's time to come clean, The Age, 2008 July 6 (the day of reckoning is approaching for the state's brown coal industry)
Alan Moran, Prepare for dim, costly future, The Age, 2008 July 4 (the Government is pursuing impossible goals with carbon tax plans that will impose a heavy burden on the community)
Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle, Sustainable emissions reduction within reach, The Age, 2008 July 4 (cars are a key carbon emitter but the use of existing strategies and technologies could significantly reduce their impact)
Ashley Seager, Time for deeds not words to reach emissions target, PwC study warns, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (CO2 fall achievable if green energy use is speeded up; top industrial nations need 80% cut by 2050)
Greig Gailey, Growth key to emissions plan, The Age, 2008 July 3 (business will provide the base for the successful move to a low-emissions economy)
Terry Macalister, Emission control, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (the Carbon Trust opens office in Beijing to help China's business sector reduce carbon footprint)
Mathew Murphy, Businesses out of emissions control, The Age, 2008 July 2 (survey: most Australian businesses have done no planning for an emissions trading scheme and only a third are aware that the scheme will start in 2010)
Terry Macalister, Government puts carbon capture on fast track, Guardian, 2008 July 1 (four energy groups to bid for government's carbon capture and storage demonstration project; E.ON's Kent coal-fired station may use system)
Chris Hammer and Brendan Nicholson, Emissions trading? Half the nation doesn't have a clue, The Age, 2008 July 1 (emissions trading may have emerged as the hot-button political issue of the moment, but half the population has either never heard of it or doesn't know what it is)
Competition(see also Marketing) up  down  top   back  on

Telecoms in Mexico: Slim's pickings, Economist, 2008 July 12 (more competition should help to drive down exorbitant phone charges)
Allan Fels and Fred Brenchley, Canberra, ACCC need to get tough on supermarkets, The Age, 2008 July 12 (major changes are needed to free up competition in the retail grocery sector)
Starbucks: Grounds zero, Economist, 2008 July 5 (the troubled company wakes up and smells the coffee)
Consumerism(see also Social and in Social) up  down  top   back  on

Cathy Alexander, Cut power now, households urged, The Age, 2008 July 25 (the electricity industry has called on households to start cutting their power use now to get ready for emissions trading)
John F Schumaker, Triumph of the trivial life, The Age, 2008 July 19 (humanist ideals have been lost as society descends into the fatuous, stupefied by the narcissism of mindless consumerism; can enlightenment 21st-century-style help us climb out and save the planet?)
James Doran, Honey, they shrank the packets of food, Observer, 2008 July 13 (the humble American consumer, already dogged by soaring petrol prices and declining wages, now has something more sinister to contend with: downsized groceries)
Sweeteners: Top that, Economist, 2008 July 12 (the battle to replace sugar intensifies)
Catherine Deveny, We're fat and scared, so I'm glad petrol and food cost more, The Age, 2008 July 9 (in this super-size society, we are becoming smaller; it's a matter of buy, buy, buy)
Tracy Withers, NZ confidence hits record low, The Age, 2008 July 9 (New Zealand consumer confidence has fallen to a record low as the economy faces a recession and unemployment rises, according to a survey)
Ian Munro and Daniella Miletic, Cheaper by the dozens, super-size retailer moves in, The Age, 2008 July 5 (there are bargains aplenty for clever shoppers at US retail giant Costco, but will Australians take to buying groceries in bulk and the ethos that bigger is better?)
Annabel Stafford, Deal on consumer credit, The Age, 2008 July 4 (dodgy pay-day lenders and unscrupulous companies that hand credit cards to teenagers may soon face tougher regulation)
Melissa Benn, The shift to thrift, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (people will soon have to live more modestly as the age of turbo consumerism comes to an end and the rich-poor gap grows wider)
Adam Morton, Charge on bags in bid to cut use, The Age, 2008 July 1 (shoppers will be charged 10 cents per plastic bag at 16 supermarkets in Fountain Gate, Wangaratta and Warrnambool next month under a trial designed to cut bag use)
Copyright and Trademarks(see also in Internet and Technology) up  down  top   back  on

Scrabulous game back on Facebook, BBC, 2008 July 31 (Scrabulous is back on Facebook, but with a new name, new rules and circular tiles)
Scrabble's owners sue Scrabulous, BBC, 2008 July 25 (Hasbro, the company that owns the North American rights to Scrabble, sues the Calcutta-based founders of Scrabulous—a game available on Facebook)
David Gow, EU to introduce new music rights system despite lobby, Guardian, 2008 July 15 (a high-profile songwriters and composers' campaign has been overruled in the online media rights case)
eBay beats Tiffany in trademark spat, The Age, 2008 July 15 (eBay scored an important victory as a federal judge said companies are responsible for policing their trademarks online, not auction platforms like eBay)
John Naughton, Who might be keeping watch on what you're watching?, Observer, 2008 July 13 (on 2 July, a US district judge, Louis L Stanton, lobbed a grenade into the cosy world of social networking, user-generated content and so-called 'cloud' computing)
Bill Thompson, Making punishment fit the crime, BBC, 2008 July 7 (the penalty for copyright infringers)
Charles Arthur, The right to peer inside your iPod, Guardian, 2008 July 10 (an agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads of government highlights conflicts between ownership and privacy)
Warning letters to 'file-sharers', BBC, 2008 July 3 (the music industry says thousands of UK broadband users who share tracks illegally will be warned about it in letters)
Economics and Policy(see also Money) up  down  top   back  on

Larry Elliott, Crunch calls for much more than a bodge-up, Guardian, 2008 July 29 (as the first anniversary of the credit crunch approaches still the gloomy news piles up)
Neuroeconomics: Do economists need brains?, Economist, 2008 July 26 (a new school of economists is controversially turning to neuroscience to improve the dismal science)
The problem: Workingman's blues, Economist, 2008 July 26 (Americans are furious about the state of their country: the reasons for their discontent)
The solutions: It's the economy again, stupid, Economist, 2008 July 26 (John McCain and Barack Obama are offering profoundly different prescriptions, though economic and political realities will limit their ambitions)
Patrick Barkham, What is the knowledge economy?, Guardian, 2008 July 17 (the term can be misleading but it's a description of the changing nature of the economy)
Martin Feil, Changing course a must for Australia, The Age, 2008 July 9 (after 30 years following the wrong path, it's time to alter our economic direction)
Kathryn Hopkins and David Gow, UK on brink of recession, The Age, 2008 July 9 (Britain is in serious danger of heading into recession as the credit crunch tightens its hold, according to a survey of businesses across the country)
Charles Duhigg, Wall St fears the worst is yet to come, The Age, 2008 July 9 (as house prices decline and Washington struggles to end the US economic malaise, Wall Street is starting to send a sobering message—the worst is yet to come)
Richard Wachman, Decline and fall of the cult of shares, Observer, 2008 July 6 (conventional wisdom has it that equities are a safe bet because, over the long term, they always go up; but the last 10 years seem to be proving the experts wrong)
Ari Sharp, Economy's dream run 'over', The Age, 2008 July 5 (leading economists warn that Australia's dream run is over, with rising unemployment, slowing growth and continued higher prices likely in the next 12 months)
Larry Elliot, Recession explainer: Definitions differ, but it's still a long time since we've seen it, Guardian, 2008 July 4 (what makes a recession)
Scott Murdoch, Spending figures tip prolonged slowdown, The Age, 2008 July 3 (the hallmarks of a protracted economic slowdown are becoming evident)
Alasdair Sandford, Kate Connolly, Tom Kington, Graham Keeley and Henry McDonald, Confidence plummets as Europe catches America's cold, Guardian, 2008 July 1 (credit crunch begins to impact much of Europe despite earlier optimism of the continent's escape)
Scott Murdoch, All signs point to slowdown on way, The Age, 2008 July 1 (the signals are strengthening that the economy will come under more downward pressure, as the property market experiences the slowest growth in nearly 17 years, and business investment begins to slow)
James Quinn, A voice crying in the wilderness says data supports Wall Street optimists, The Age, 2008 July 1 (Larry Kantor is not like other economists; while his peers have been engaged in a vicious spat as to who can predict the darkest scenario for the American economy, Kantor has been quietly and self-assuredly forecasting quite the opposite)
Environment(see also in Health and Science) up  down  top   back  on

Mark Kinver, Rising demands threaten wetlands, BBC, 2008 July 25 (wetlands risk conversion to farmland as demand for food and biofuel grows, a conference in Brazil is told)
Jean-Christophe Vie, Wildlife: A luxury we can live without?, BBC, 2008 July 15 (the planet's rich diversity of life needs to be preserved in its entirety because it is vital for our long-term survival)
Katharine Murphy and Mathew Murphy, Tough love 'vital' for polluters, The Age, 2008 July 5 (business given tough love message on climate change: environment needs more help than you do, so stop lobbying the Government for special treatment)
Fraud and Corruption(see also in Internet and Social) up  down  top   back  on

Washington Post, $150 million lost in failed Iraq projects, The Age, 2008 July 29 (the US Government paid a contractor $A149 million to construct fire and police stations and prisons in Iraq that it never built or finished, according to audits)
Nick McKenzie, Council worker on payroll of firm that won contracts, The Age, 2008 July 25 (a senior project manager with the City of Port Phillip is on the payroll of a construction company that has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in council contracts)
Royce Millar, Local government 'ripe for rorting', The Age, 2008 July 25 (corruption in Victorian local councils is probably more widespread than recognised but rarely exposed and policed because of lack of scrutiny, say leading governance experts)
Kenneth Davidson, Money is the root of all political evil, The Age, 2008 July 10 (two decisions on advertising have had a toxic impact on good governance)
David Hencke, Fraud: Whitehall 'doomed to lose £1bn of benefit payments every year', Guardian, 2008 July 8 (Commons public accounts committee reveals that £2.7bn was lost last year)
Royce Millar, Political donations linked to developers, contractors, The Age, 2008 July 7 (corporate donors to the Victorian Labor Party are almost invariably companies with multimillion-dollar Government contracts or development, gaming or alcohol interests)
Richard Wachman, Decline and fall of the cult of shares, Observer, 2008 July 6 (conventional wisdom has it that equities are a safe bet because, over the long term, they always go up; but the last 10 years seem to be proving the experts wrong)
James Glanz and Richard Oppel, White House linked to Kurdistan oil deal, The Age, 2008 July 4 (Bush Administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to the President was planning to sign an oil deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government that ran counter to US policy and undercut Iraq's central Government, congressional committee concludes)
Michelle Grattan, Iraq sues AWB over oil-for-food bribery scandal, The Age, 2008 July 2 (AWB has vowed to fight a civil lawsuit brought by the Iraqi Government against it and more than 90 other companies involved in the oil-for-food bribery scandal)
Globalism and Free Trade(see also in International) up  down  top   back  on

E.J. Dionne, The failure of free trade, The Age, 2008 July 15 (the economic orthodoxy of today will not help deal with the panic that is becoming the staple of 2008)
Investment in the Mediterranean: The Med's moment comes, Economist, 2008 July 12 (globalisation is bringing a wave of money to the Mediterranean)
Global markets: Bearish battalions, Economist, 2008 July 5 (almost everything that could is going wrong for world stockmarkets)
Jesse Hogan, Miki Perkins et al., Markets in turmoil, now stand by for climate pain, The Age, 2008 July 4 (Australian sharemarket crashes to lowest level in almost two years, as fears grow that faltering American economy could lead rest of the world into recession)
John Madeley, Doha talks look set to fail—and that's the good news, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (the talks have become a free trade round whose outcome would benefit richer rather than poorer countries)
Management(see also in Computing) up  down  top   back  on

James Adonis, Eight signs your workplace is crook, The Age, 2008 July 31 (emotional outbursts and rambling meetings are among the symptoms)
Simon Caulkin, How to make $4bn without really managing, Observer, 2008 July 27 (you can love Google or hate it, but you can't deny its extraordinary effectiveness)
Simon Caulkin, Why power-sharing beats the traditional plc, Observer, 2008 July 13 (asked to name employee-owned firms, most people would have difficulty getting past one finger of one hand: John Lewis)
Simon Caulkin, The tyros facing their first downturn, Observer, 2008 July 13 (with recession perilously close, the credit crunch is presenting a generation of British managers with a novel and unwelcome prospect: managing through adversity)
Management trends: The cult of the dabbawala, Economist, 2008 July 12 (business-school gurus take lessons from an unexpected source)
Naomi Alderman, Now come the words that every employee dreads—it's time for your six-monthly review, Guardian, 2008 July 10 (the twice yearly employment appraisal is a worthless exercise)
Starbucks: Grounds zero, Economist, 2008 July 5 (the troubled company wakes up and smells the coffee)
Emma John, Painting by numbers, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (focus groups are muscling their way into the arts from book plots to theatre concepts; are they a useful tool—or a death blow to creativity?)
Manufacturing(see also in Technology) up  down  top   back  on

Rajesh Mirchandani, Black backdrop to Model T celebration, BBC, 2008 July 24 (the glory of the Model T can't hide Ford's problems)
Martin Feil, Changing course a must for Australia, The Age, 2008 July 9 (after 30 years following the wrong path, it's time to alter our economic direction)
David Hirst, If China slips on oil, it will learn that distance is tyranny, The Age, 2008 July 9 (China's days as the world's manufacturing base may be numbered)
Jeff Green, Car maker pins hopes on small wonder, The Age, 2008 July 4 (General Motors may sell mini-car in the US to win back buyers scared off by high fuel prices)
Sean Dodson, The machine that copies itself, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (the inventor of the 'RepRap' machine believes that it will enable developing countries to get a foothold on the manufacturing ladder)
Andrew Clark, US car sales crunched as fuel soars, The Age, 2008 July 3 (fears are mounting over the financial stability of struggling US car makers, following a sales slump last month)
Kathryn Hopkins, Manufacturers pass on rising costs even as recession looms, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (UK's manufacturing sector contracts sharply as output and orders fall at fastest rate in almost 10 years)
Orietta Guerrera, World in a whirl for Bendigo's spinners, The Age, 2008 July 2 (from revolving bedrooms in luxury Dubai apartments to driveway turntables outside French homes, a Bendigo-based family business is sending the world into a spin)
Marketing(see also Competition and in Internet) up  down  top   back  on

Gino Vumbaca, Why would you listen to alcohol lobbyists on health issues?, The Age, 2008 July 29 (health experts are best qualified to advise the Government on alcohol)
AFP, Sony to sell ad space in PS3 games, The Age, 2008 July 14 (Sony will start offering virtual advertising space in PlayStation 3 games as part of efforts to stem losses from the console)
Leo Shanahan, Better, cheaper medicine ignored, The Age, 2008 July 12 (the most effective drug to treat high blood pressure was not advertised in newspapers targeted at doctors because it would not bring a substantial profit to drug companies)
Leo Shanahan, Stiffer fine for pill plug, The Age, 2008 July 8 (drug company fined $60,000 for peddling poll results on men's sex lives to media to promote erection aid should have received harsher penalty, consumer advocates say)
Zoe Wood, After 10 years of spending, there are too many shops, Observer, 2008 July 6 (15 new shopping centres will open this year—providing a glut of space at a time when retailers are in the front line of the crunch)
Ambush marketing: Playing the game, Economist, 2008 July 5 (rival brands, as well as athletes, compete at sporting events)
Media and Television(see also Newspapers and in Technology) up  down  top   back  on

Marc Moncrief, Signs of decline in state's film jobs, The Age, 2008 July 25 (it is a world of smoke and mirrors, one that toys with perception and reality, and even the Bureau of Statistics does not want to say that it knows much about what is happening to jobs in Australia's filmmaking industry)
Internet piracy: Thanks, me hearties, Economist, 2008 July 19 (media firms find that statistics on internet piracy can be rather useful)
Anushka Asthana and Vanessa Thorpe, Disney films 'have lost innocence', Observer, 2008 July 13 (Gurinder Chadha believes the 'wonderment' of classic children's films has been lost because producers are making movies for all ages)
Ravi Somaiya, Average age of viewers hits 50 as more turn to web, Guardian, 2008 July 7 (a study of the big five broadcast networks shows that the average viewer no longer falls within the coveted 18-49 range)
Money and Banking(see also Economics and Wealth) up  down  top   back  on

Malcolm Maiden, IMF warns of 'negative interaction', The Age, 2008 July 30 (bank balance sheets are under renewed stress, and financial groups are finding it increasingly difficult to back-fill emerging losses on their balance sheet with fresh capital raisings; that in turn is raising the risk of "negative interaction" between the banking system and the global economy)
Swiss banks: Snowed under, Economist, 2008 July 5 (Switzerland used to take pride in its big banks; now it's not so sure)
Ashley Seager, Central bank likely to raise eurozone interest rates despite downturn, Guardian, 2008 July 1 (one-size-fits-all policy will hit Ireland and Spain; ECB concern over fastest rising prices for 16 years)
Daily Telegraph, BIS warns the worst is far from over, The Age, 2008 July 1 (a year ago, the Bank for International Settlements startled the financial world by warning that we might soon face challenges last seen during the onset of the Great Depression; this has proved frighteningly accurate)
Carter Dougherty, Inflation alarm helps tighten bear's grip on the world's sharemarkets, The Age, 2008 July 1 (central bankers face a tough task to bring optimism back to markets without risking even slower growth)
Outsourcing and Consulting(see also Pay and in Computing and Social) up  down  top   back  on

Polly Curtis, School tests system under great stress, Guardian, 2008 July 15 (failure of US company to deliver this year's results could mean legal action and penalties of 'tens of millions')
Infosys prospers despite slowdown, BBC, 2008 July 11 (Indian outsourcing firm Infosys has warned that spending among its biggest clients on IT is slowing)
Simon Caulkin, The price of dubious advice—£100bn a year, Observer, 2008 July 6 (consultancies have a Macavity-like ability to vanish from the scene of the crime)
David Walker, Report recommends easier outsourcing, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (the government should give new impetus to the outsourcing of public services, says review)
David Walker, For fresh thinking, don't forget history, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (the review is stronger on rhetoric than on proof that contracting out improves services)
Ben Schneiders, Plane had faults despite overhaul, The Age, 2008 July 2 (a Qantas aircraft just back from a maintenance overhaul in Malaysia had a string of faults including problems with its navigation systems and rudder)
Pay and Wealth(see also Outsourcing and in Computing and Social) up  down  top   back  on

David Hirst, Rescuing rich is proving expensive for US regulators, The Age, 2008 July 26 (waves of bad news are sweeping away billions of dollars of public money)
Dewi Cooke and Ben Schneiders, Household wealth leaps for most Australians, The Age, 2008 July 3 (it's been a good four years for most Australians, with net household wealth surging more than 50%)
John Harris, Britain makes Merkel and Sarko look like the lefties, Guardian, 2008 July 2 (high-paid executives worried by change in Europe can take solace from Labour—here they are still untouchable)
Privatisation and Private Equity up  down  top   back  on

Private equity: Annuals horribilis, Economist, 2008 July 12 (private equity firms open up, a little)
German railways: Mixed signals, Economist, 2008 July 12 (Deutsche Bahn is under attack from all sides; privatisation will not help much)
Nils Pratley, When going gets tough, the Texans turn tail, Guardian, 2008 July 4 (you know private equity. They're the guys who stand firm when others crumble)
Seumas Milne, New Zealand is in tune with the times—Britain's lagging, Guardian, 2008 July 3 (the privatisation tide is turning, from Wellington to Caracas, but public intervention has to be at the cutting edge as well)
Publishing and Newspapers(see also Media) up  down  top   back  on

Marc Moncrief, Display of spine when Knowledge meets twitchy China, The Age, 2008 July 29 (Melbourne publisher Hardie Grant thought editing was done on The Knowledge Book until it ran up against the Olympics, the Dalai Lama and Mao Zedong)
John Sutherland, America's self-publishing 'miracle', Guardian, 2008 July 17 (William P Young's 'self-published bestseller', The Shack, has been the 'buzz book' in the US with sales verging on 2m)
Jesse Hogan, WA on line, SA next for Fairfax?, The Age, 2008 July 9 (less than a month after Fairfax Media expanded into Western Australia, the publishing company has taken a tentative step in another market: South Australia)
Chris Tryhorn and Mark Sweney, Press the panic button, Guardian, 2008 July 7 (paper publishers are reporting big falls in ad revenue and the internet is gobbling up classified; so can print media bounce back?)
Social(see also Consumerism) up   first    top   back  on

David Hirst, Rescuing rich is proving expensive for US regulators, The Age, 2008 July 26 (waves of bad news are sweeping away billions of dollars of public money)
Maggie Shiels, Firms 'miss' social site success, BBC, 2008 July 11 (businesses are missing out on the huge potential that social networks present, a leading information technology company has warned)
Ravi Somaiya, Average age of viewers hits 50 as more turn to web, Guardian, 2008 July 7 (a study of the big five broadcast networks shows that the average viewer no longer falls within the coveted 18-49 range)