2009 April: Business

2009 April: Business

Anchor: Base Index
Other months: March May
Other areas: Climate computing education health international Internet science social technology Others

Topics: Advertising agriculture banking carbon cartels climate competition conservation consultancy consumerism copyright corruption credit cards economics environment fraud free trade freight globalism management manufacturing marketing media mining money newspapers outsourcing pay policy politics privatism property publishing recycling social television trademarks wealth

Carbon

last down top back on

Adam Morton, Office block to be carbon neutral, The Age, 2009 Apr. 29 (the four-storey, $6 million prototype will be the first built as part of Grocon's delayed development of the long-derelict former CUB site, on the corner of Queensberry and Bouverie streets in Carlton)
Mathew Murphy, Carbon storage could save Latrobe Valley jobs, The Age, 2009 Apr. 27 (the inaugural head of Clean Coal Victoria believes carbon capture and storage technology is a viable proposition that could prevent the loss of hundreds of jobs in the coal sector)
Paddy Manning, Coal's push for carbon storage an impossible dream, The Age, 2009 Apr. 27 (the main problem is the sheer volume of carbon dioxide that needs to be captured and stored)
'Clean' coal plants get go-ahead, BBC, 2009 Apr. 23 (Ministers give the go-ahead for a new generation of coal power plants, but only if they can show they can reduce emissions)
Tim Costello and Don Henry, Carbon: embrace the change, The Age, 2009 Apr. 22 (it's time to get realistic about carbon reduction; business needs certainty if it is to unlock the investment needed to shift our energy markets and bring cleaner technologies to the market to cut greenhouse gas emissions)
Adam Morton, Greenhouse burial trial a success, The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (Victoria's potential role in developing divisive "clean coal" technology will be underlined this week when scientists announce 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas has been successfully stored underground in the Otway Basin)
Kenneth Davidson, Time to scrap emission impossible, The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (the Rudd Government's proposed greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme is dying; it no longer even serves the dubious political function of providing a fig leaf to suggest the Government has superior environmental credentials to the Liberal Party; it should be put down and pronounced dead)
Paddy Manning, Cleaning up by perfecting carbon clean-up, The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (capturing and storing greenhouse gases is eminently worse than forgoing the emissions in the first place; safely trapped carbon dioxide is still pollution, and there's plenty of doubt about the safety part)
Paul Austin, Call for carbon tax to fight warming, The Age, 2009 Apr. 11 (Victorian Governor David de Kretser calls for consideration of carbon tax, to increase price of goods produced using energy from high-pollution power stations)
Mathew Murphy, Airlines propose emissions target plan, The Age, 2009 Apr. 7 (group of international airlines issues strong message to UN climate change negotiators—include us in your post-Kyoto deal)

Competition and Cartels

(see also Marketing)

up down top back on

Julian Lee, Google brings new meaning to friend or foe, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (their you-scratch-my-back-and-I-scratch-yours could end later this year when Google moves into behavioural targeting)
Dan Milmo, British-American flight plan encounters turbulence, The Age, 2009 Apr. 22 (the proposed tie between British Airways and American Airlines has been dealt a blow after the European Commission opened a competition investigation into alliances between some of the world's biggest airlines)
Ben Schneiders, Qantas must be protected, insists ACTU, The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (Qantas needs saving from "unfair competition" from foreign government-backed airlines to protect Australian jobs, the ACTU will argue today as it meets the airline over last week's decision to axe up to 1750 jobs)
Tim Colebatch, Why the banks can tell us 'go jump!', The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (however National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank explain their decisions to keep all or most of the Reserve Bank's interest rate cut for themselves, the reality is that they are able to do so only because the global crisis has knocked their competitors out of the ring)
Chris Bonnor, Education is no place for a free market, The Age, 2009 Apr. 1 (competition has fostered a system that penalises the poor)

Consumerism and Credit Cards

(see also Social and in Social)

up down top back on

Obama attacks credit card 'abuse', BBC, 2009 Apr. 23 (President Barack Obama has told the US credit card industry to scrap unfair interest rate hikes and to be more transparent and accountable)
Tim Colebatch, How do we get through tough times? Spend, spend, spend, The Age, 2009 Apr. 24 (with unemployment rising, asset prices, such as for shares and houses, falling and a large proportion of the population concerned about unemployment or being forced to work less, most people are paying off debts rather than increasing their borrowings for discretionary spending)
Daniella Miletic, Authors deliver advice on guilt-free shopping, The Age, 2009 Apr. 4 (two writers with a conscience are making it easier to buy according to your beliefs)
Consumer psychology: From buy, buy to bye-bye, Economist, 2009 Apr. 4 (the recession will have a lasting impact on the way people shop)

Copyright and Trademarks

(see also in Internet and Technology)

up down top back on

Maggie Shiels, Google stands by book search deal, BBC, 2009 Apr. 30 (Web giant Google defends its plans to digitise the world's books, as the US Department of Justice looks at the deal)
Michael Geist, Battle over global anti-counterfeit treaty, BBC, 2009 Apr. 22 (since the United States, European Union, Japan, Canada, and a handful of other countries announced their participation in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations in October 2007, the ACTA has been dogged by controversy over the near-total lack of transparency)
Selma Milovanovic, Nine loses battle over TV guide, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (a small company reproducing electronic TV schedules has won a long-running legal battle over copyright against the Nine Network, giving viewers more choice)
Court jails Pirate Bay founders, BBC, 2009 Apr. 17 (the founders of Pirate Bay, the world's most famous file-sharing site, are given jail terms in Sweden for copyright offences)
Q&A: Pirate Bay verdict, BBC, 2009 Apr. 17 (its sheer success has made it a particular thorn in the side of the music, TV and film industries, which have seen this case as an important step in stamping out the illegal sharing of copyrighted media)

Economics and Policy

(see also Money)

up down top back on

Alex Millmow, It helps to find some comedy in the crisis, The Age, 2009 Apr. 27 (there's a long and proud history of tapping economic turmoil for comic content)
Tim Colebatch, How do we get through tough times? Spend, spend, spend, The Age, 2009 Apr. 24 (with unemployment rising, asset prices, such as for shares and houses, falling and a large proportion of the population concerned about unemployment or being forced to work less, most people are paying off debts rather than increasing their borrowings for discretionary spending)
Hannah Piterman, Opportunity within the crisis, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (the global economic crisis didn't happen overnight; it happened because alarm bells raised over the past 10 years in response to corporate malfeasance were largely ignored or were reframed as the workings of a handful of corrupt individuals, rather than being treated as vital information for an effective risk strategy)
Paul Krugman, Don't count recoveries before they hatch, The Age, 2009 Apr. 18 (there is a long way to go before the financial crisis can be declared over)
Economics focus: The curse of politics, Economist, 2009 Apr. 18 (financial crises can drag on because efficient remedies are politically unpalatable)
David Hirst , Post-G20 new 'New World Order' holds many mysteries, The Age, 2009 Apr. 7 (the dismal science now knocks on the door of quantum physics)
Roy Hay, Keynes reborn in tough times, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (no longer is the great economist an object of derision)

Environment and Conservation

(see also in Health and Science)

up down top back on

Orchard losses 'threaten species', BBC, 2009 Apr. 24 (the disappearance of traditional fruit orchards from England's landscape threatens wildlife species, conservationists warn)
David Rood, Pipes pre-dated environmental study decision, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (the ordering of pipes for the north-south pipeline was given the go-ahead more than a month before the State Government decided against a full environmental study of the project)
Richard Black, EU commission urges fishing cuts, BBC, 2009 Apr. 21 (the EU has far too many fishing boats, and major cuts are needed to make fishing sustainable, according to the European Commission)
The environment: Biofools, Economist, 2009 Apr. 11 (farming biofuels produces nitrous oxide; this is bad for climate change)
Peter Ker, Elusive fish expose testing flaws in dredge monitoring, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (an elusive breed of fish is frustrating efforts to monitor the impact of dredging in the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay)
Peter Ker, Something fishy in bay research?, The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (their presence on pizza can be galling, but it is the absence of baby anchovies that is raising eyebrows among Victoria's top environmental scientists)
UK biodiversity still in decline, BBC, 2009 Apr. 6 (conservationists criticise the government for failing to provide the resources to protect dwindling species)
Rogerio Wassermann, Can China be green by 2020?, BBC, 2009 Apr. 2 (China's unprecedented economic growth over the past 30 years has come at a huge cost to the environment)

Fraud and Corruption

(see also in Internet and Social)

up down top back on

Recession-hit UK 'fears ID theft', BBC, 2009 Apr. 21 (nearly three-quarters of UK consumers think that they are at greater risk of identity theft and credit card fraud as a result of the world financial crisis)
Mex Cooper, Bank's big-hit bid to pin ATM fraud, The Age, 2009 Apr. 10 (a bank's how-to guide to detecting automatic teller machine "skimming" devices has become an email hit after a series of thefts at machines around Melbourne)
Adrian Lowe, Push for chips as ATM scammers strike again, The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (scammers strike again following another bank card skimming incident in Melbourne, and police fear an international crime ring could be behind latest attacks)
Dewi Cooke, Choir falls hard after soaring to starry heights, The Age, 2009 Apr. 3 (they soared to heights no one could have expected, but the comedown for the Choir of Hard Knocks has been hard and bitter)
Kate Hagan, Court told of plot to 'destroy' drug critics, The Age, 2009 Apr. 1 (international drug giant Merck kept list of "physicians to neutralise" in a bid to dampen criticism of its anti-arthritis drug, Vioxx, hears the Federal Court)

Globalism and Free Trade

(see also in International)

up down top back on

Dan Roberts, Indian optimist will thrive in an even flatter world, The Age, 2009 Apr. 25 (the mastermind of India's IT dominance thinks globalisation has barely begun)
G20 members 'blocking free trade', BBC, 2009 Apr. 24 (the World Bank accuses the US and European Union of carrying out or planning protectionist measures, despite a recent pledge not to do so)
Daniel Flitton, Trade secret could be the key to an effective migration system, The Age, 2009 Apr. 22 (why not apply the logic of the free market to the movement of people?)
John Garnaut, Ahead of the pack, The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (China may be the first economy emerging from the global financial crisis, sending a lifeline to the rest of Asia and Australia; but at what cost?)

Management

(see also in Computing)

up down top back on

Hannah Piterman, Opportunity within the crisis, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (the global economic crisis didn't happen overnight; it happened because alarm bells raised over the past 10 years in response to corporate malfeasance were largely ignored or were reframed as the workings of a handful of corrupt individuals, rather than being treated as vital information for an effective risk strategy)
Martin Feil, Firm hand in a partnership gives economic lessons, The Age, 2009 Apr. 3 (society needs minders, finders and grinders)
Michael De La Merced and Jonathan Glater, Bankruptcy case with few precedents, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (industries such as airlines, railways and steel have all been remade through bankruptcy. But the Obama Administration is trying to reshape GM in a truly novel way)

Manufacturing and Mining

(see also in Science and Technology)

up down top back on

Manufacturing 'to lead recovery', BBC, 2009 Apr. 27 (the manufacturing sector could help to drive the recovery in the UK economy, according to consultancy group Deloitte)
GM to close factories for weeks, BBC, 2009 Apr. 23 (General Motors is to temporarily shut 13 factories in the US and Mexico as it tries to cut costs and control stock levels)
Low chip and TV sales hit Samsung, BBC, 2009 Apr. 24 (Samsung Electronics reports a 72% drop in quarterly profits after losses at its microchip and LCD television divisions)
Tentative signs of US gold rush, BBC, 2009 Apr. 9 (there's much talk of the world being back in 1929, another Great Depression; for some, it is more like 1849)
Ben Schneiders, More jobs down the drain as gloom deepens, The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (more than 1000 jobs are to be shed in mining and manufacturing as the economy tumbles deeper into trouble)
Decline in manufacturing 'eases', BBC, 2009 Apr. 7 (UK manufacturing output falls for the 12th consecutive month in February, but the rate of decline is easing, official figures show)
David Gow, Porsche drives into hedge-fund territory, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (German luxury car maker Porsche has made more money from its financial dealings in the first six months of its financial year than it did from making cars)
Clancy Yeates, US car makers' debt a global drag, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (the liabilities of US car giants are legion)

Marketing and Advertising

(see also Competition and in Internet)

up down top back on

Harold Mitchell, Dear Senator, be a good sport, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (a ban on advertising alcohol in sport would be costly and pointless)
Kate Hagan, Merck accused of 'ghost writing' medical article, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (drug company had cardiologist sign his name to journal article it wrote claiming there was no evidence of heart risk attached to its drug Vioxx, court documents allegedly show)
Kate Hagan, Firms called a truce on safety issues, The Age, 2009 Apr. 22 (Australian executives from two of the world's biggest drug companies struck deal not to attack each other over the safety of their anti-arthritis drugs)
Nick Miller, Drug company user guides 'inappropriate', The Age, 2009 Apr. 20 (widely used medical guidelines for blood clot prevention are potentially dangerous and have been compromised by sponsorship from a firm that makes a drug recommended in the guidelines, experts say)
Julian Lee, Self-regulation myth needs to face the truth or be busted, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (what advertising says is more important than how it is said)
Daniella Miletic, 'Myth-busting' Coke adverts get busted, The Age, 2009 Apr. 3 (advertising industry comes under fire for failing to act on controversial claims that Coca-Cola does not make people fat or rot their teeth)

Media and Television

(see also Newspapers and in Technology)

up down top back on

Cinema boom shows even economic clouds have silver lining, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (cinema operators and film studios are reporting record sales, as several films attract better-than-expected numbers and the public turns to the silver screen for light relief)
Selma Milovanovic, Nine loses battle over TV guide, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (a small company reproducing electronic TV schedules has won a long-running legal battle over copyright against the Nine Network, giving viewers more choice)
Radio gets a radical revamp, BBC, 2009 Apr. 23 (the dawn of radio ushered in the beginnings of mass media entertainment, which has now become fundamentally woven into the fabric of modern-day society)

Money and Banking

(see also Economics and Wealth)

up down top back on

Rodney Smith, China quietly builds gold reserve, BBC, 2009 Apr. 27 (China reveals that it has been secretly doubling its gold reserves as part of a shift away from the US dollar)
Craig Torres and Dawn Kopecki, Fed finds stress doesn't come cheap, The Age, 2009 Apr. 27 (financial regulators may force many of the largest US banks to raise capital or conserve extra cash after accounting for assets held off their balance sheet)
Central banks: The monetary-policy maze, Economist, 2009 Apr. 25 (the simple rules by which central banks lived have crumbled; a messier, more political future awaits)
Andrew Walker, IMF head urges speedy bank reform, BBC, 2009 Apr. 24 (the managing director of the International Monetary Fund says the West must act more quickly to reform its banking systems)
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, G20's global cash splash infuriates European Central Bank, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (the European Central Bank has launched a blistering attack on G20 plans to use the International Monetary Fund to pump liquidity into the world economy, calling it "pure cash creation" outside the normal mechanisms of control)
Tim Colebatch, Why the banks can tell us 'go jump!', The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (however National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank explain their decisions to keep all or most of the Reserve Bank's interest rate cut for themselves, the reality is that they are able to do so only because the global crisis has knocked their competitors out of the ring)
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, A global currency? The conspiracy theorists will love it, The Age, 2009 Apr. 4 (in effect, the G20 leaders have activated the IMF's power to create money and begin global “quantitative easing”)
David Hirst, Game's up for Big Brothers of banking, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (the five big US banks are on the brink of a coup, and their partners in crime are many)

Outsourcing and Consulting

up down top back on

Infosys sees difficult year ahead, BBC, 2009 Apr. 15 (Indian outsourcing giant Infosys has reported a 29% rise in fourth quarter profits but warns it will see its first fall in annual revenues in 2009/10)

Pay and Wealth

up down top back on

Martin Shankleman, Income envy 'makes you ill', BBC, 2009 Apr. 20 (people who compare their earnings with others are damaging their health, according to new research to be presented at the annual conference of the Royal Economic Society this week)
China bosses told to cut salaries, BBC, 2009 Apr. 10 ( Executives of state-owned banks and insurers in China have been told to cut their salaries to ease the disparity between themselves and Chinese workers)
Walter Hamilton and Tiffany Hsu, Wall Street titan backs executive pay limits, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (the campaign to clamp down on executive pay is getting help from an unusual source: the head of Wall Street's most powerful investment bank)
Ruth Williams, G20's attention has been brought back to finance sector pay, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (Macquarie has set the cat among the fatly remunerated pigeons)

Privatisation and Private Equity

up down top back on

John Sutton, How our leaders worshipped a false god in PPPs, The Age, 2009 Apr. 24 (the Government can do itself and the public a major service by shining a big spotlight on the poor value for money we, the public, have received from many PPPs because of a woeful lack of private sector competition)
Kenneth Davidson, Melbourne doesn't need another road, The Age, 2009 Apr. 2 (there are cheaper and greener alternatives to the Frankston bypass)
David Rood and Clay Lucas, Public-private deal to drive Frankston bypass, The Age, 2009 Apr. 1 ($750 million bypass around Frankston to be built as public-private partnership, regardless of whether the project receives funding from the Federal Government)

Publishing and Newspapers

(see also Media)

up down top back on

AFP, Newpapers declare a war on web parasites, The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (US newspaper owners, their advertising revenue evaporating, their circulation declining and their readership going online to get news for free, are fighting mad; the enemy?; websites that use their stories without paying for them)
AFP, Google boss tells papers how to run their websites, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (Google chief executive Eric Schmidt told worried US newspaper owners on Tuesday they need to work with the web giant as they struggle to find a new business model for the ailing industry)
Dan Harrison, Newspapers set to merge or die, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (ABC head and former Fairfax newspaper executive Mark Scott has painted a bleak picture of the future of newspapers, predicting Melbourne will become a one-newspaper city amid mergers, closures and cost-cutting)
Text to co-publish Griffith Review, The Age, 2009 Apr. 8 (the publisher at Text, Michael Heywood, yesterday said the quarterly publication, which includes essays on current affairs and trends, would now be jointly produced by Text and Griffith University in Queensland)

Recycling

(see also in Climate and Health)

up down top back on

Adam Morton, Recyclers offer jobs in return for help, The Age, 2009 Apr. 3 (beleaguered recycling industry lobbies for a central role in the nation's recovery, saying it will spend $2 billion and create 6000 jobs if it wins government support)

Social and Property

(see also Consumerism)

up first top back on

Eric Johnston, Offer's bittersweet taste, The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (Macquarie Group's exit plan for small shareholders in BrisConnections appears to have been designed to save the skin of the retail shareholders that piled into the troubled toll road project during its disastrous initial public offering last year)
Miki Perkins, Kinder parents oppose 'land grab', The Age, 2009 Apr. 23 (parents at 83-year-old kindergarten in Port Melbourne accuse local council of a "blatant land grab" over plans to demolish the kindergarten and build a federally backed early childhood hub)
Mark Hawthorne, No white knight, Bolton admits he 'played a game', The Age, 2009 Apr. 18 (much has been written about Nicholas Bolton in the past six months. It has focused on his hairstyle, his gumption and his age; this week the attention turned to the young man's ethics)
Lucy Battersby, ASIC warns against false transfers, The Age, 2009 Apr. 18 (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has stepped up its warnings to investors about transferring shares to accounts held by fictional people)
Paul Austin, Pennies from Kevin may not be spent in best ways, The Age, 2009 Apr. 9 (what would Kevin Rudd do with one of those $900 cheques that are zipping through the mail system?)