Tim Treadgold

If the mining boom is Australia's economic salvation, as we were told in last night's federal budget, why are WA and Queensland doing all the heavy lifting?

Price fixing is illegal. What about product pegging? If you haven't heard that expression before, get used to it because it is about to revolutionise Australian retailing.

If you thought the global commodities boom was running out of puff, think again. The latest analysis shows that this is not really a boom at all, it is the biggest economic revolution in the past 100 years.

Would you like a banker permanently positioned in your boardroom, or bedroom, because that could happen if the banks lose the infamous Bell Group legal battle.

Too many shops! That is the awful reality for traditional retailers, and investors in retail-focused funds, because there is no hope of a sudden revival of shopping as we have known it.

"Doomed from the day it was conceived, and rightly so". They were the opening words used in this column five months ago about the proposed merger of the Australian and Singapore stock exchange - and they're worth repeating today.

Tipping the gold price, and the future price of gold stocks, is a mug's game, unless a clear value gap can be demonstrated - which is what appears to have been done in a rather interesting piece of recent research.

Most Australians have never heard of Dutch Disease, but they will soon because it is the financial phenomena playing a key role in killing resource sector construction jobs.

Buy when others are fearful. That piece of advice made Warren Buffett one of the world's richest people, and it could make a fortune for anyone prepared to plunge into massively discounted Australian uranium stocks.