Management consultant from The Change Factory, Kevin Dwyer - RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson - Talking Business 2012 - Ep21

Summary: Interview with Kevin Dwyer, management consultant from The Change Factory Interview with RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson Leon and Garry discuss issues including: The situation in Greece with a new pro-bailout government, Spain’s debt problems, the G20 meeting in Mexico and Europe’s problems pushing the Australian dollar to a six week high. The US Federal Reserve has decided to extend existing stimulus measures until the end of the year, in a bid to tackle subpar US jobs growth. The Westpac/Melbourne Institute Leading Index saying that the pace of economic growth in Australia is expected to slow in the second half of the year. Economists saying interest rates will probably be on hold next month following the release of Reserve Bank minutes of its last board meeting New figures showing that small business customers have received the least benefit from the latest cycle of interest rate cuts. Sales of new motor vehicles in Australia rising in the month of May, beating expectations of a fall, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retail spending has risen for the third time in four months, according to the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) Business Sales Indicator New federal government figures showing that job advertisements on the internet rose by 3.4 per cent in May Australian international merchandise imports rising in May, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Dun and Bradstreet finding that six in 10 Australians are now worried about their financial security Fairfax Media closing down printing plants, moving The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age to a tabloid, and sacking 1900 staff — including 380 journalists — as part of a massive cost-cutting drive to save the media giant from corporate oblivion. Fairfax will shift to tabloid versions for those two newspapers, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, from the first quarter of 2013. Fairfax is also setting up a paywall for its site At the same time, pressure is growing on the Fairfax board with Gina Rinehart now taking out 19 per cent of the group and pushing for three board seats and the unfettered right to hire and fire editors, sparking concerns from politicians about the future of the Australian media News Ltd restructuring its newsrooms and shedding staff as part of a major restructure at Australia's biggest newspaper publisher but at the same time, acquire Packer’s Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd for nearly $2 billion, giving it 50 per cent control of Foxtel, and buying Australian Independent Business Media Pty Ltd, which publishes the Business Spectator website and Eureka Report for about $30 million Grocery wholesaler Metcash planning to take full ownership of the Mitre 10 hardware brand Insurance company QBE facing a $240 million profit hit as legal pressure is stepped up for it to slash its ''grossly excessive'' premiums on a controversial US product Clive Palmer announcing a design and engineering consultant for his Titanic II project Troubled video games retailer Game finally shutting its doors, with administrators PwC announcing it will close all remaining locations.