An application released last week for Apple’s iPhone, which gives users the ability to circumvent the carriers to send SMSs, will be making our large phone companies a little bit nervous,
Articles by Adam Schwab 
Triguboff, Keane talking fiction on house prices
Billionaire Harry Triguboff’s pleas for the RBA not to raise interest rates today are informed by a massive conflict of interest: the longer Australia’s housing bubble continues, the more Triguboff can sell his apartments for.
Why we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet
Global share markets and federal banks are hailing the end of the recession — but they make a living out of telling people what they want to hear. Some other commentators are singing a very different tune.
PC pay report a very mixed bag
The Productivity Commission has released the long-awaited draft version of its review into the regulation of executive remuneration. It’s a small step, but no great leap forward, for corporate governance.
Leighton CEO King of the heap on vulgar pay rich list
As the final annual reports trickle in, the truly horrific picture of just how much Australia’s richest CEOs were paid last year is being fully revealed.
Wayne Swan rings hollow on executive pay
Treasurer Wayne Swan and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd certainly know how to make the right noises about excessive executive pay. But will we see more than talk on the issue?
Does Dixon’s $10.7m Qantas payout add up?
Earlier this week Qantas confessed to shareholders it paid former CEO Geoff Dixon $10.7 million for five months work. Not only were the payments extremely high, they were also largely unwarranted.
Macquarie Airports’ mid-air collision
Looking at the gruesome scene evolving at Macquarie Airports Group is not altogether different from driving past a multi-car pile up, with the unit holders playing the crash victim roles.
How Geoff Dixon’s millions grounded
Qantas
For eight years, former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon was the highest paid airline executive in the world, despite a pretty mediocre performance in the job. The irony hasn’t been lost on the company’s embattled workforce.
Foreign buyers blow out the housing bubble
The causes of Australia’s ever-inflating housing bubble are many but one hasn’t received a lot of attention: the influence of overseas buyers since the government relaxed its foreign property investment rules.
The murky world of buyer’s advocates
The rise of buyer’s advocates has coincided with the continued inflation of Australia’s residential housing bubble. Why is this happening?
Housing: the market continues to astound
The most obvious problem with the first-home-owner’s grant is that it doesn’t actually benefit home buyers, since most recipients of the grant will probably be in competition with each other.
Meagre stipends see BHP execs through tough times
The world is only slowly emerging from a deep recession, but the bank balances of BHP senior executives have not been too badly hurt.
Termination payouts: government policy simply makes sense
The federal government introduced a Bill seeking to limit executive termination payments to one year’s fixed salary. But in a move that’s commercially, morally and politically indefensible, the Libs have opposed it.
Suncorp remuneration a case of market failure
Despite the claims of many, the recent crisis was not the fault of the free market — that is largely because problems were caused where the market was not free at all.
Chris Bowen is very, very wrong on executive pay
Part of the reason that executives are paid so much is because of their ability to make their jobs sound far more complicated and difficult than they actually are.
What’s the worth of an MBA?
MBAs remain one of the most overrated concepts in education, with most business schools massively out of pocket thanks to their MBA programs.
APRA squibs it on executive pay
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has drastically watered down its executive pay guidelines, so financial executives can once again rest easy.
Macquarie’s "fair and reasonable" millions anything but
KPMG’s approval of Macquarie Airports’ $345 million bounty is kind of like saying a thief who steals your wallet was being fair and reasonable because they didn’t shoot you afterwards.
Padley got it wrong on fees
Crikey regular Marcus Padley may think a fee of 2% of an asset to a fund manager represents a good deal, but charging 2% to actively invest on behalf of clients is a grotesque rip-off.
Elite directors form conga line to defend their pals at Hardie
The seven non-executive directors of former asbestos producer James Hardie received glowing references from Australia’s business elite, highlighting a failure by their peers to understand the repercussions of their actions.
Consumer win: my triumph over Virgin Blue’s incompetence
Crikey’s Adam Schwab documents his inspirational (if time-consuming) victory over Virgin Blue after a flight from Hobart to Melbourne was randomly cancelled.
MFS directors get back on the gravy train
Former directors of the failed fund manager MFS continue to provide financial advice to clients of the financial planning firm Avenue Capital Management.
The $62 million shareholders wasted on handshakes
A new report has revealed that some of Australia’s largest companies spent $62 million on needless termination payments last year — payments that could be blocked by shareholders if the Government’s proposed legislation regarding termination payments is approved.
Rowsthorn’s millions must be rebuffed
In the past two decades, we’ve witnessed an almighty increase in executive remuneration, with even the GFC unable to dampen it. No better example is the case of the embattled Asciano and its CEO, Mark Rowsthorn.
