burningpants

Bank Backlash

In Australia, every time there is an interest rate announcement from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), there is an inevitable backlash against the banks for raising their interest rates above the RBA’s increase, not passing on the full RBA cut, or like what happened in early February …

Cashing Out?

For the past four years Australians have been world class cash hoarders, adding almost $50 billion a year since 2007 – almost half of which has flowed into the balance sheets of Australia’s big two banks, CBA and Westpac.

Cash still remains the most attractive asset class in …

Skills Shortage

This year, the news pages have been dominated by redundancy announcements, which may lead one to conclude that there’s a big pool of talent out there just waiting to be hired.

But the latest unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tell a different story. Australia’s …

Manager Inefficiency

Equity markets may have kicked off 2012 with a bumper performance in January but this short term joy fails to mask the fact Britain’s asset management industry faces significant challenges.

Continued downward pressure on pricing, ever increasing regulatory demands, the rise of more sophisticated passives, greater frequency of …

Definition Overload

The only investment certainty over the past four years has been uncertainty.

Investors have been taken on an eye-watering, nerve-jangling roller coaster ride with markets rising and falling hither, thither and yon.

It’s been all too much for many investors, who along the way have chosen to …

Career Chaos

If you want a decent metaphor of how fast the business world has become, then there isn’t a much better metaphor than the mobile phone industry.

It seems almost impossible to remember that just five years ago the market was dominated by giants which looked unshakable: Nokia, Motorola …