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2009 July:   Business

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

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Topics:   Advertising  agriculture  banking  carbon  cartels  climate  coal  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

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Carbon and Coal

(see also Mining and in Climate: Mitigation & National, and in Technology)

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Leon Gettler, Without control, carbon market will bubble, The Age, 2009 July 23 (carbon credits are mimicking subprime as a derivative full of risk)
Matt Wade, India rebuffs Clinton's carbon deal, The Age, 2009 July 21 (India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has bluntly stated that India will not give in to international pressure to cut emissions)
Richard Black, Low carbon way 'to reshape lives', BBC, 2009 July 15 (generating one third of electricity from renewables by 2020 is central to the UK government's low carbon initiative)
Mathew Murphy, Chinese may back fertiliser deal, The Age, 2009 July 14 (China is within weeks of signing a $1.5 billion deal that would transform Victorian brown coal into fertiliser)
David Shukman, Project to 'grow carbon sinks', BBC, 2009 July 9 (ambitious plans to grow 24 million trees to soak up carbon dioxide and restore the rainforest have got underway in Ghana)

Competition and Cartels

(see also Marketing)

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Peter Martin, Banks muscle out smaller rivals in loans market, The Age, 2009 July 14 (Australia's banks have gained almost unrivalled dominance, accounting for almost $90 of each $100 lent, an all-time high)

Consumerism and Credit Cards

(see also Social and in Social)

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Danny John, New laws to shave banks of $1bn in penalty fees, The Age, 2009 July 13 (the banking industry has admitted that nearly $1 billion worth of fee income is at risk once a new consumer law governing unfair contracts comes into force next January)
Nicole Rich and Sean Carroll, Pricing policy needs teeth if it's to really benefit consumers, The Age, 2009 July 1 (unit pricing is long overdue in Australia and any reform that will help cut what is for most households one of their largest weekly expenses is welcome, particularly in the present economic climate; but the Government's new code will not work unless the unit prices are easy for shoppers to notice, read and use; some key aspects of the code will significantly undermine its effectiveness in this regard)

Copyright and Trademarks

(see also in Internet and Technology)

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Guardian, Black mark for Russian-Nigerian attempt at a brand name, The Age, 2009 July 2 (Russia's attempt to create a joint gas venture with Nigeria could become one of the classic branding disasters - after the new company was named Nigaz)

Economics and Policy

(see also Money)

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Peter Martin, Inflation monster loses its teeth, The Age, 2009 July 23 (the inflation rate has collapsed from 5 per cent to just 1.5 per cent in less than a year—the most dramatic slide on record)
Mark Davis, A clash of ideologies, The Age, 2009 July 21 (Keynes or Friedman?; a veteran economist says there's no need to choose)

Environment and Conservation

(see also in Health and Science)

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Fraud and Corruption

(see also in Internet and Social)

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Leonie Wood, 'Fake psychologist' faces hundreds of charges, The Age, 2009 July 21 (a man who has practised as a psychologist in two states for more than a decade faces hundreds of fraud charges)
Firm admits overseas corruption, BBC, 2009 July 10 (a British engineering company admits it was involved in overseas corruption and breaching UN sanctions)

Globalism and Free Trade

(see also in International)

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Veljko Fotak and William Megginson, Let's get the evidence on sovereign funds, The Age, 2009 July 23 (in-depth analysis needs to be coupled with regulation)
John Garnaut, China challenges global car industry, The Age, 2009 July 14 (the president of Chery, China's most successful car maker, tells Trade Minister Simon Crean he was thinking of investing in or buying struggling Australian car components makers)

Management

(see also in Computing)

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Julia Talevski, Scaling the mountain of office networking, The Age, 2009 July 21 (managing and maintaining staff, how they communicate between each other and retaining their knowledge is a vital consideration for most companies)
Adele Horin, Creep? Probably a manager, The Age, 2009 July 15 (a study has provided firm evidence of the link between personality and job choice)
Melissa Fyfe, Desal bidder faces legal threat over 'lemon', The Age, 2009 July 5 (a bidder for Victoria's desalination plant threatened with legal action by Queensland Government after revelations its Gold Coast plant riddled with problems)

Manufacturing and Mining

(see also Coal and in Science and Technology)

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Barry Fitzgerald, Newcrest's find 'world class', The Age, 2009 July 23 (Newcrest has put the wind up China's tungsten industry by revealing that its O'Callaghans tungsten discovery near the Telfer gold/copper mine in Western Australia is shaping up as a world-class find)
Andrew Heasley and Adam Morton, Plug in or perish, car industry warned, The Age, 2009 July 23 (the Australian car industry faces extinction unless it jumps aboard the electric revolution, a sustainable transport company warns)
Mineral firms 'fuel Congo unrest', BBC, 2009 July 21 (western mineral firms are fuelling violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo by failing to check where their raw materials come from, activists say)
First Nano owner gets keys to car, BBC, 2009 July 17 (the first owner of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, takes possession of his vehicle in the Indian city of Mumbai)
John Garnaut, China challenges global car industry, The Age, 2009 July 14 (the president of Chery, China's most successful car maker, tells Trade Minister Simon Crean he was thinking of investing in or buying struggling Australian car components makers)
Leaner GM emerges from bankruptcy, BBC, 2009 July 10 (GM emerges from bankruptcy protection after signing a deal allowing it to sell its best assets to a "new GM")

Marketing and Advertising

(see also Competition and in Internet)

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Daniella Miletic, Nestle cuts sugar in snacks to keep child ads, The Age, 2009 July 21 (Nestle has reduced the sugar content of some of its most popular snacks to meet new nutritional standards and to be able to advertise them to children)
Daniella Miletic, Coles targets seniors in grocery wars, The Age, 2009 July 21 (age pensioners will have a brief opportunity to buy cheaper groceries this week after Coles supermarkets revealed their latest offensive in the grocery marketing wars: a 10 per cent discount for seniors)
Nick Miller, Spoonfuls of sponsorship making medical students sick, The Age, 2009 July 4 (fed up with the barrage of drug company marketing designed to mould their future prescribing habits, a group of Australian medical students has decided to fight back; Pharma Phacts, a national campaign that is officially launched today, aims to educate students on the effects and unconscious influence of pharmaceutical marketing; and it will come with an optional online pledge, in which students can vow to never accept a drug company freebie)
Mark Metherell, Renewed push to ban cigarette branding on packs, The Age, 2009 July 2 (pressure is mounting for brand labels to be removed from cigarette packets—a move that the tobacco industry bluffed a previous Labor government out of pursuing, according to anti-tobacco campaigners)

Media and Television

(see also Newspapers and in Technology)

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Paul McIntyre, Virtual stream becomes a flood, The Age, 2009 July 23 (figures compiled for BusinessDay by Nielsen Online shows the number of online users who stream video content at least once a week has rocketed 129 per cent in the past year to 4.2 million a month; and more than 60 per cent of them say they are doing it while watching TV)

Money and Banking

(see also Economics and Wealth)

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Robert Wilmers, Alphabet soup served in a virtual casino, The Age, 2009 July 30 (Wall Street created, originated and sold an alphabet soup of derivative securities, and it was these synthetic instruments—not the traditional mortgage or small-business loans or other standard lending originated by banks—that unleashed a flood of credit, created a vast excess of housing, weakened the capital structure of banking and undermined confidence in banks)
Malcolm Maiden, Big four maintain relentless drive, The Age, 2009 July 23 (NAB's $2.75 billion share sale continues a relentless drive by the big four to armour-plate their balance sheets in this downturn)
US 'exposure to crisis $23.7tn', BBC, 2009 July 20 (the total exposure of the US government to the financial crisis could hit $23.7 trillion, according to a watchdog report)
Peter Martin, Banks muscle out smaller rivals in loans market, The Age, 2009 July 14 (Australia's banks have gained almost unrivalled dominance, accounting for almost $90 of each $100 lent, an all-time high)
Eric Johnston, Momentum builds for new review into the banking system, The Age, 2009 July 13 (better known as the Wallis review—after businessman Stan Wallis who headed the team that put together the 771-page report—the Financial System Inquiry was a comprehensive look into the banking and wealth management sector; 12 years after its release, momentum is building for another look at the nation's banking system)
Danny John, New laws to shave banks of $1bn in penalty fees, The Age, 2009 July 13 (the banking industry has admitted that nearly $1 billion worth of fee income is at risk once a new consumer law governing unfair contracts comes into force next January)
Geithner urges derivatives curbs, BBC, 2009 July 10 (US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants securities and futures regulators to police the largely unregulated over-the-counter market in derivatives)
Chris Zappone, CBA struggles to fix NetBank, The Age, 2009 July 1 (customers of Commonwealth Bank's online banking operations NetBank are still experiencing problems with some services, three days after the glitches were first reported)

Outsourcing and Consulting

(see also Pay and in Computing and Social)

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Mark Armstrong and James McFall, Advice should be free of dodgy fees, The Age, 2009 July 23 (financial planning is at the crossroads and has an opportunity to raise itself to a level of professionalism that is long overdue)
First Nano owner gets keys to car, BBC, 2009 July 17 (the first owner of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, takes possession of his vehicle in the Indian city of Mumbai)
Infosys posts warning on revenues, BBC, 2009 July 10 (Indian outsourcing giant Infosys has reported a small rise in quarterly profit, but once again warned revenues would fall in the coming year)

Pay and Wealth

(see also Outsourcing and in Computing and Social)

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Adele Horin, Women still lose out in pay madness, The Age, 2009 July 13 (women who work as managers could be $13,500 a year better off on average if they had a sex change)

Privatisation and Private Equity

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Clay Lucas, Connex rail meltdown 'not a systemic failure', The Age, 2009 July 21 (Connex knew air-conditioners on more than half its trains would fail in extreme heat but did nothing because it was not in its contract with the Government)
Clay Lucas and Jason Dowling, Logo change to cost as much as a train, The Age, 2009 July 17 (removing Connex's name from Melbourne's train fleet and replacing it with the new operator's logo will cost more than $15 million)

Publishing and Newspapers

(see also Media and in Others)

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Michael Heyward, Our writers and publishers don't need handouts, The Age, 2009 July 23 (why tamper with the one creative industry that is standing on its own feet?)
Allan Fels, Reading through the lines, The Age, 2009 July 23 (book lovers have been overcharged for too long to protect the publishing industry, with no discernible cultural benefit)
Jason Steger, Publishers fight cheap books, The Age, 2009 July 15 (books could be cheaper in Australia if the Federal Government implements recommendations in a report issued yesterday by the Productivity Commission)
James Robinson, MPs to question tabloid bosses, The Age, 2009 July 11 (News International faces three fresh inquiries into the conduct of its journalists and executives following the disclosures that Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire paid £1 million to keep secret the use of criminal methods to get stories)

Recycling

(see also in Climate and Health)

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Kenneth Davidson, Denying recycling just won't hold water, The Age, 2009 July 2 (Water Minister Tim Holding is a desperate man representing a desperate government; his press statement last week claimed that a business case undertaken by or for the Government found major recycled water projects too expensive; rubbish)

Social and Property

(see also Consumerism)

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Adele Horin, Women still lose out in pay madness, The Age, 2009 July 13 (women who work as managers could be $13,500 a year better off on average if they had a sex change)
Ainsley Newson, 'Protect consumers from gene tests', BBC, 2009 July 8 (why private gene testing companies must be controlled)

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