Feature Stories

As Australians move more and more away from large pooled super funds into directly managing their own share portfolios, many products have evolved to streamline the process and exploit market expertise. Direct share investment is a fast growing industry.

Redistribution of Employment: Indian call centres are the bane of many in the Western world, but more importantly they represent a loss of local jobs to offshore sources. Aren’t jobs disappearing for those of us left, accelerating income disparity?

Misconceptions: A housing bubble? A current account disaster? The bears are out of date in the new world of the platform company. This time things are different.

Volatility: The rich get richer as the platform company economies export the volatility of wages, employment and profits to the developing world.

The government discussion paper on media laws served to finally bring thoughts of how Australia deals with new media to the table. Brokers are now focussing on what forms of old media will die out.

Continued from Part I

Overcapacity and Deflation: Overcapacity is an important pillar of the platform company. China has provided the basis for the platform company to thrive, while we await inflation that never comes.

The Platform Company: The first wave of society was based on agriculture, and the second wave was based on the industrial revolution. In the age of information and technology, the third wave has seen the emergence of the “platform company”. The platform company is the child of capitalism, and it heralds in the brave new world.

Part II zooms in on why investors have loved BOQ shares too much.

Bank of Queensland was arguably the sexiest bank in Australia throughout 2005 and early 2006. However, all good stories come to an end eventually. Part I in a series of II.