February
Where were the gatekeepers in the $480m Shield Master Fund collapse?
The 5800 investors caught up in the failed scheme would surely wonder why alarms didn’t go off. Tony Boyd sifts through the entrails to find out what happened.
Four CBA bosses on what makes the bank great
The four CEOs who have run the Commonwealth Bank over the past 30 years share their views on why CBA has managed to consistently outperform its peers.
January
ASX needs to plug $1bn liquidity hole
Helen Lofthouse, CEO of the equities market operator, will start the year with another apology for the embarrassing pre-Christmas outage, but that’s the least of her problems.
December 2024
Time for big super to lift board skills
Big super thinks of itself as an engine of the financial system. But big funds need to bridge the gap between their directors’ skills and those managing the billions in retirement savings.
November 2024
MinRes scandal: Where was internal audit?
The non-executive director and former KPMG partner in charge of cleaning up the miner’s conflicts of interest mess will have to review the internal audit work done by KPMG.
Why can’t Macquarie make up its mind on what CBA is worth?
When CBA reports strong quarterly profits this week, leading banking analysts will say sell. But their colleagues in wealth management will tell clients to buy.
October 2024
BHP outsmarts the Brazilians – but at what price?
BHP has won its battle to minimise the costs of the Samarco dam failure, but it is yet to convince locals of its commitment to fairness and justice.
Scam reform lacks teeth
Australia has been a happy hunting ground for criminals running high-tech scams. New laws may not help consumers seeking compensation.
September 2024
No end to Australia’s love affair with solar
Rapidly declining solar feed-in tariffs could change the way Australian households manage their renewable energy. That is bound to be good for the grid.
Gina Rinehart continues her father’s tax crusade
After years railing against the burden of government regulations, the iron ore billionaire is winning support for another key policy passion – lower taxes for northern Australians.
Class action skewers Rio Tinto’s Bougainville redemption
A secretive company is disrupting efforts to finally make amends for the environmental devastation caused by its copper mine in Bougainville some 30 years ago.
August 2024
The ASX’s legal mess reveals deep-rooted problems in boardrooms
Court action against the ASX over its bungled CHESS replacement project reflects a worrying escalation in the box-ticking, compliance culture inside Australian boardrooms.
Why I’m glad I dumped my industry super fund
After his SMSF regularly beat the performance of his former industry super fund for over a decade, Tony Boyd urges more Australians to take control of their super.
July 2024
Rod Carnegie’s seminal lunch with Paul Keating
Paul Keating reveals, for the first time, the pivotal conversation about the Australian economy with Rod Carnegie at lunch in Melbourne almost 50 years ago.
How ASIC’s new insider-trader busting system works
The securities industry regulator is getting better at catching insider traders. But the cohort of offenders is so dumb it may not make a difference.
Vested interests at play in the chronic disease explosion
A search for good nutrition opened a Pandora’s box of snake oil salesmen and crackpot solutions. It also provided clues to the surging levels of chronic disease.
June 2024
In the end, complexity felled the Lendlease empire
Lendlease was globally recognised for engineering excellence, its ability to build thriving community spaces, and its nurturing of many leading CEOs. Its diminution is instructive as well.
May 2024
There’s value in big government spending done right
The private-public partnership championed by Anthony Albanese that is transforming the supply chains is a role model for underwriting critical minerals expansion.
Payments innovation under threat from RBA
Buy now, pay later, which revolutionised Australia’s highly concentrated payments system, is under potential threat from increased regulation.
April 2024
How Australia is losing the equity market war
Australia’s equity capital markets are slipping behind global competitors on market value, shares traded and foreign listings. That trend is unlikely to change while the ASX is fixing its monopoly clearing and settlement system.