Tim Treadgold

If Woodside Petroleum’s one-for-four share swap bid for rival LNG producer Oil Search was plan A, then plan B, when it comes, had better be a beauty, because so far no-one apart from Woodside management can say anything positive about the proposed takeover.

Tipping a commodity price recovery that will boost Western Australia’s economy is a game for the brave or the foolish; and while Colin Barnett came close to being one or the other yesterday, he was actually just being premature.

If ever Western Australia is to have another slogan on vehicle number plates, then the favourite has to be a return to the short-lived ‘Golden State’ catchphrase.

Is it greed, ignorance or stupidity that prevents bankers from knowing when they have overstepped a moral and ethical boundary, if not a legal one?

Following its recent currency devaluation, a more competitive China should prove to be a good thing for Western Australia’s export industries, but there will be some pain in achieving that possible future benefit because no-one knows how other countries will react to the China surprise.

Banks and their customers are eagerly awaiting the next move on official interest rates in the US.

Empty shopfronts in some of Perth’s high-profile retail strips are a sign of WA’s wider economic malaise.

Retail, not mining, has borne the brunt of the slowdown in Western Australia during the past 12 months, with a study of the state’s economy by the investment bank Goldman Sachs revealing a startling decline in retail jobs of more than 20 per cent.

There is a range of reasons why bank shares have fallen lately, some from self-inflicted injuries and some due to a changing marketplace.