BUSINESS

By Benjamin Spier, FXCMInflation is one of the most important gauges for a currency trader to track, yet one of the more confusing pieces of data.

In yesterday's Daily Reckoning we left off with the idea that a cashless society promotes tyranny. That might seem like an odd subject to begin with today, given the show-stopping 50 basis point cut in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) yesterday.

On Thursday we predicted doom and gloom for the Australian housing market. More doom and gloom than we've seen already.

More than 2,000 senior public officials in the United Kingdom may have benefitted from a controversial pay deal scheme.

Westpac Banking Corporation announced on Friday that it will cut its variable home loan rates by 37 points, in the process keeping 13 points for the bank. However, the bank passed in full the cut in interest rate to business loans.

Victoria's unemployment rate of almost 5.8 per cent is expected to worsen as hundreds of workers in the Australian state lose their work.

Kellogg's plans to sweeten its' brand offering with a touch of salt in 2012. Their newest property is the recently purchased Pringles flagship, and the buy represents Kellogg's effort to chip away at the growing international snacks market.

No new planes will be added to Qantas Airways' existing fleet as the company embarked on saving measures that will push back the scheduled deliveries of eight Airbus A380s to 2019 at the latest.

Australians continue to show a change in their drinking preference as they drank less alcoholic drinks and beer, and more of spirits.

Telecom competitors Vodafone and Optus have agreed to a joint venture project to build 500 more new mobile phone stations in the next four years to address network problems.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

Westpac Banking Corporation reported on Thursday first-half net profit of $3.07 billion for the six months to March 31. While it is a 25 per cent decline compared to the same period a year ago, the slump was mainly due to a one-off tax consolidation following Westpac's purchase of St George.

U.S. stocks fell as a disappointing reading on services-sector activity tempered sentiment on the eve of the government's employment report.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 62 points or 0.5% while the S&P lost 0.8% to 1391 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

Samsung muscled its way again on top of the global smartphone market by capturing 29.1 per cent of the pie in the first quarter of the current year and effectively overtaking its chief rival, Apple.

South Australian Transport Services Minister Chloe Fox announced on Wednesday that the state has imposed about $218,000 fines on three Adelaide bus contractors because their buses are always late.

Australians continued to enjoy their passion for travel to domestic and foreign destinations which resulted in air carriers, Qantas and Virgin Australia, enjoying high passenger numbers for the month of March.

Manual work proved as the best pay slip booster these days, according to a new national wage report that detailed the compensation benefits currently enjoyed by Australian workers.

1st Fleet, an Australian trucking company that operates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, locked out about 1,000 workers and ceased trading overnight without any warning on Wednesday night.

The manufacturing sector of Eurozone showed a sharp shrink in almost three years in April, while the data from Asia seems to be very impressive for the quarter.

By Jonathan BarrattInventories in the copper market continue to come under pressure and as we have seen a good lift in prices already, we can suggest the trend is here to stay for a little while longer.

Chinese food safety regulators have shut down production at a Coca-Cola beverage plant in Shanxi province after discovering small amounts of chlorine in some of the products following a routine maintenance check.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest private employer, has been ordered to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to more than 4,500 of their employees across the United States.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 10 points or 0.1% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1402 but the Nasdaq gained 0.

More tourists will hopefully flock to Australian destinations as industry officials announced on Wednesday a long-range tourism blueprint designed to lure more visitors into the country.

- One stockbroker has gone contrarian on prospects for Australian wine producers- BA-ML is predicting a long lasting upcycle- Change in industry dynamics should benefit Treasury Wine EstatesBy Greg PeelWe recall that the Australian wine industry underwent a significant boom beginning from around the...

The Reserve Bank dominates the coming week in Australia. But the April jobs report and a host of other data is out in the US will keep us interested.

It's going to be a great week for interest rate fetishists. The Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday to decide what to fix the price of money at in Australia.

The paper dollar is now the single most important source of systemic risk to the financial system, the world economy, and the security of the American people.