Tim Treadgold

Confidence is the fuel of stock market booms. Run dry and the consequences are dire, as we have seen when earlier booms stalled.

Secession bobs up as a topic every time Western Australia goes into boom mode, and now is no different – though there is an emerging (and amusing) variation on the secession theme

If business in Western Australia thought it was impossible for government services to get worse than they already are, then just wait until the lethargy triggered by the Corruptio

Bubbles never last long, as every child knows. No sooner have you blown one than it pops.

Unemployment at 2.7 per cent of the workforce is reason to celebrate; for most of us.

Reinventing yourself, repeatedly, is not an easy trick.

It has been a long time since anyone thought seriously about investing in WA’s Wheatbelt region for the potential of a substantial future capital gain.

No boom lasts forever, but over the past week Briefcase has seen evidence that this boom really is something completely different and might, just might, live up to the expectation

It’s not Brian Burke’s Panama hat that is causing so much trouble in Western Australia these days. It’s something far simpler – it’s the letter ‘b’ itself.

This week, as a treat for its reader, Briefcase wanted to declare this page a Burke-free zone.

It appears no-one has outwardly canvassed the possibilities raised by a simple, three-word question – was anyone trading?

Politics and investment advice are two subjects largely foreign to Briefcase.

Australians are getting used to the idea of a two-speed economy, with resource-rich Western Australia and Queensland rocketing away from the southern rust-belt states.

Regrets abound in financial markets, especially when share prices fall sharply. But what about shares that rise sharply; can anyone have regrets about that?

Conflicts of interest have been in the news lately, but mainly at the top end of town, and mainly because of internal boardroom squabbles.

If you can buy a big bottle of multi-vitamins for $20 why do some people still pay $30?There is a one-word answer: ignorance.

Perth’s overdue residential property price correction, which promises to prune 20 per cent off the value of most homes, also promises to be memorable for two other reasons – it is

Has Wesfarmers become just another tired, diversified industrial, destined for the knacker’s yard, or is it one of the best investments on the stock market, destined to disappear

If there really is a boom in Western Australia, someone forgot to tell the top Perth-based industrial companies.

It's quiz time and today’s questions is: How much financial detail should be available to shareholders in a company?

Does history repeat itself? A question that has kept Briefcase awake recently after a series of events which are eerily like 1987, the time of the last great boom (and bust).

If cash really is king in the investment world, and the investment world is being shaken by private equity funds seeking cash to fund their debt loads, then surely the game to be

Extreme capitalists argue that private equity is the bee’s knees because it proves that markets can sometimes be wrong in valuing assets, such as Qantas.

The heirs and successors of the late Rene Rivkin are not alone in worrying about tax matters.

Secrets, as we are seeing graphically in Perth today, only have one purpose: betrayal.

Like drunks at a party, speculative share traders always say there is time for one more round before quitting.

Greed, in case you hadn’t noticed, is rampant.

“Under new management”. We’ve all seen that sign many times on an A-frame outside a business, or writ-large across a shop window.

If Charles Dickens was alive today, working as a finance journalist, he might have borrowed one of his most famous opening lines to describe last week’s events on the stock market

It can take time for really big mistakes to be recognised for what they are. Alan Carpenter’s two energy bloopers, in the name of winning votes at the next state election, are classic example of time bomb blunders which will cost Western Australia dearly

Looking for the peak is Australia’s newest national investment sport, whether it’s peak oil, peak nickel, or the peak of the stock market.

Every Australian country town has a ‘big’ something.