BUSINESS

The Chinese authorities have succeeded in making good on their promise to lower property prices, but this bid to make housing affordable for the greater half of the Chinese population mightprove particularly costly for the Chinese economy as a whole.

Low-doc lenders need to provide brokers with better education, Pepper Home Loans has said.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) roll out is heading the right direction, according to NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley and more will be accomplished once its $11 billion deal with Telstra Corporation gains approval from the competition watchdog.

Despite the cut in cash rate implemented by the central bank this November, Australian retailers are far from being optimistic as key players reported of discouraging numbers that are at best, descriptive of challenging trading situations.

Reports have emerged that Microsoft has rediscovered its interest on ailing search engine firm Yahoo, with tech news site Digital Trends confirming on Thursday that the two entities have agreed to commence preliminary procedures toward a possible deal.

Bank of Melbourne has expanded its BDM access in a move tipped by its new head of broker, Clive Kirkpatrick.

The federal government plans to carve billions of dollars from spending in next week's mid year review to achieve a budget surplus in 2012-13 financial year.

Android smartphones have flooded tech stores worldwide and are distributed by a lot of vendors. In a way, it has somehow replaced the personal digital assistant (PDA) which originally has smart functions.

by Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThe predicament we investors find ourselves in is reminiscent of Woody Allen's take on the Cold War where the threat then was a nuclear war.

The City Central Police arrested on Wednesday a 35-year-old Australian woman who was the manager of a bank and allegedly defrauded her employer of $4.1 million in eight months.

Qantas assured its passengers on Thursday that the strike-prone flag carrier would not suffer from another industrial action for the next four years.

The euro fell to a new six-week low against the dollar Thursday after French, German and Italian leaders agreed not to widen the role of the European Central Bank to support weaker euro-zone state

New Zealanders are planning to cut on their holiday travel plans in the next 12 months. A report by Roy Morgan Research, a market research and public opinion survey firm in Australia, explained the reduction in travel plans to the weaker consumer confidence.

The German IFO survey edged higher in November, with all three indices recording gains. The headline business climate index rose from 106.4 to 106.6, against expectation of 105.2. The second estimate of UK September GDP growth was unchanged at 0.5pct.

By Greg PeelLondon's FTSE was down 0.2% while Germany's DAX fell 0.5% and France's CAC was flat.

Black Friday in the U.S. means a lot of human traffic due to the number of people taking advantage of certain deals in different stores. Stores are definitely interested to find out which stores have more human traffic and which attracts more customers.

Retail store Harvey Norman has finally succumbed to the inevitable and has launched an e-commerce site.

Apple is whetting shoppers' appetites for the company's Black Friday sale with a simple Web page that only announces a "one-day Apple Shopping Event".

For shoppers who don't want to get up at the crack of dawn and battle countless other buyers to look for the best discounts can do so from the comfort of their own homes.

The digital world has slowly invaded practically every single device on earth, even the smallest bit with the audio device. Various kinds of headphones have been released since the invention of the Walkman.

Due to the volatility of foreign exchange currency and sharemarkets since the 2008 global financial crisis, experts are encouraging investors to include precious metals in their portfolio.

One of the DeLoreans from the set of Back to the Future is going up for auction at a Profiles in History event. The car is one of seven that were specially made for the movies, and this is one of three surviving models in existence.

Australians took 7.1 million overseas trips in 2010 and spent an average of $5,000 per trip, newly launched independent finance comparison Web site Mozo said on Thursday.

Murchison Metals (ASX: MMX) has conditionally sold its interests in Crosslands Resources and the Oakajee Port and Rail projects to Mitsubishi Development for A$325 million.

New technologies and players in the video distribution industry are threatening the viability of the pay television sector.

As an early Christmas gift, Google is slashing the price of its web-only Chromebooks to just $299.

U.S. and Canadian retailers have slashed prices for Research in Motion's PlayBook tablet to $199.

Google continues its latest campaign of retiring products and services that the tech giant admitted failed to deliver the desired results, company officials said.

The details of the $100-million pay-off between the Greens and the Labor government in exchange for the former's support of the mining tax are no longer secret.