Tim Treadgold

It's hard to imagine anyone being unhappy with Andrew and Nicola Forrest's remarkably generous $65 million donation to establish a system of educational scholarships to rival that created by Cecil Rhodes more than 100 years ago.

Colin Barnett will surely take a consultative approach when it comes to a review of state mining royalties.

When bank deposit rates are less than 3 per cent it's hard to resist the siren call of an investment opportunity being spruiked at 20 per cent, which is why investors are rushing into residential property – and why many of them will get badly burned.

Low interest rates and banks' enthusiasm to lend money are two factors driving the heating housing market.

You don't have to be in retail to know that times are tough for shopkeepers, their staff and their landlords, but what you might not know is that conditions are probably going to get worse before they get better.

Exotic and minor metals are never a natural fit for small mining companies, a fact discovered by shareholders in struggling lithium producer Galaxy Resources, and a threat that hovers over the head

Late storms are one way of looking at WA's “winter of discontent”.

Western Australia's biggest home-grown company, Wesfarmers, is poised to deliver stellar returns to shareholders, or slump alarmingly.

There is nothing more boring than a conversation about the weather but, in the case of a United Nations climate change report scheduled for release next week, there are significant business factors

Gina Rinehart's flagship $10 billion Roy Hill project should become an iron ore mine, but it might not turn out to be the goldmine she's hoping for.

Unless some of the smartest people in the financial world are misreading their tea leaves, Australia's new prime minister, Tony Abbott, has done more than win an election – he's won the keys to a new era of solid economic growth.

Government-backed schemes to develop renewable power supplies are coming unstuck as the price of traditional energy sources falls.

The $10 billion tragedy of Western Australia's failed magnetite iron ore processing experiment risks becoming something worse next year, as the price is pushed down by a flood of iron ore supply an

Global food markets don't always behave as might be expected, particularly in China, where the government plays such a dominant role.

Australia's two biggest exports, iron ore and gas, are facing renewed price pressure, a situation which is starting to be reflected in the exchange rate and which could precede a big fall in the Au

Kevin Rudd's ‘tax breaks for the Territory' plan has a strong similarity to a proposal by Gina Rinehart that was ridiculed by Labor.

It's not easy being an optimist these days, which is why an outbreak of confidence about Australia at investment bank Morgan Stanley is worth analysing – it just could change your plans for the fut

We live in strange times when a state treasury is more bullish about commodity prices than an investment bank.

Who pays? That is a question no-one seems to be asking in the debate over solar-power subsidies, or the bigger question of who pays for the state government's debt binge.

The federal government has invoked the ‘law of unexpected consequences' with its new bank levy.

The fun started early at the annual Diggers & Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie yesterday with delegates bravely predicting a higher gold price, to which the market responded by driving the gold pric

Record low interest rates are contributing to the surprising increase in Perth's property prices.

Buckle up.

When an asset achieves the status of ‘fair value' it generally ceases to be news, which is probably why no-one has been talking about the Australian dollar reaching that point against the US dollar

Strong June quarter production data have confirmed iron ore as the one bright spot in Western Australia's troubled mining sector, though for how much longer is the critical question for the industr

Western Australia's role as a cash cow funding Canberra's pre-election spending spree was highlighted today when the first of the big iron ore miners filed its June quarter production report, confi

As if commodity price uncertainty and falling consumer confidence weren't bad enough, now the weather is conspiring to dent WA's economy.

Gold and iron ore are the newsmakers in Western Australia's mining industry but nickel could be the troublemaker, with most nickel mines now operating at a loss, potentially triggering another roun

No one in Western Australia needs to be told we have become one of the world's most expensive locations, but two recent events highlight how the state has become so uncompetitive it is exporting mining jobs to Britain.

Clive Palmer got more than he bargained for when he decided to enter the political arena.

During a previous economic downturn a Sydney-based banker asked of Western Australia: “has everyone stopped eating over there?”

We can expect more cutbacks at state and federal levels, as governments shed staff to save costs.