Author: Ed

journalism

Coins worth more than their weight in gold

The Australian, Wealth – Gold report THERE are two stories about gold coins, no matter how you look at it. There are the bullion coins linked to the rocketing gold price. Then there is the price of numismatic or collectable coins, which are not directly linked to the gold price but which are outperforming. The underlying fact is that when anything goes wrong in the financial system, investors turn to gold and gold coins. There are other investment options, such […]

journalism

A right royal licence to mint money

The Australian, Wealth – Gold report THERE are many ways to buy gold and unless you want some complicated financial instrument the Perth Mint pretty much offers all of them, despite the fact that it owns very little gold itself. “We don’t own any gold, or virtually none at all,” says Perth Mint treasurer Nigel Moffatt. The reason it doesn’t own much gold is that it either borrows at an interest rate of about 15 basis points, holds it on […]

Blogs, journalism

Turning clicks into cash

The Australian, Entrepreneur DARREN Rowse is an accidental entrepreneur. The Melbourne-based lay preacher has earned more than $700,000 from internet advertising since 2003 simply by working out what people want to read on the internet. Now he runs the B5Media Network of 320 bloggers with co-founders Shai Coggins from Adelaide and Jeremy Wright from Toronto after 18 months ago raising $US2 million in venture capital. Mr Rowse was an internet amateur when he started blogging in 2002 after a friend […]

journalism

Small screen’s big picture

The Australian, Entrepreneur AUSTRALIA is behind the rest of the world with online shopping. According to online researcher Hitwise, just 6.75 per cent of Australian internet traffic last month was for shopping and classifieds. In the US, 9.54 per cent and Britain 9.61 per cent of traffic was in this category. In the DVD market, 10 per cent of US households have rented online; in Australia it’s under 1 per cent. The good news is that this means there is […]

Eat streets, Restaurants, tapas

Anada tapas restaurant on Gertrude St

I want crispy rabbit with alioli The English want to watch football. The Spanish bullfighting. They scream and shout at each other. Hair is pulled. Somebody spits in another’s face. The police arrive wearing their funny hats and, worrringly, with machine guns. Such are the memories of some pretty dreadful tapas and raciones in Spain, Benidorm to be precise. Much of the same rubbish has now come to Australia, although thankfully we don’t have to sit through the “Full English […]

Food blogs

Exclusive: Ferran Adria says blogs are the big food revolution

Thanks to Matt Preston, creative director of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, for sharing his exclusive from El Bulli’s Ferran Adria: I caught up with Mr Adria and a few journos at MadridFusion08 in Jan. His opening response was to a question about what the big changes in food were this year. His answer was translated from Spanish so there may be nuances missed by the translator but the inference was that there has been a explosion in blogs. […]

journalism

Art in the right place

The Australian, Entrepreneur ARTIST or businesswoman? The question is one that’s often asked about Abigail Crompton. She started her career creating museum shop souvenirs for the National Gallery of Victoria and Craft Victoria, which gave her the idea to make art a business — the Third Drawer Down Gallery. She kicked off with 200 tea towels her father had given her. She decorated five herself before becoming bored and farming out the decorating to others. This was the beginning of […]

journalism

Your bank, exclusively

The Australian, Wealth Qualifying is half the battle to be a customer of a private bank, Ed Charles reports | February 28, 2007 THE world of private banking consists of an exclusive club of retail bank clients and an elite club of global private bank clients. The level of personal service you get and what you pay will depend very much on how much money you have. At the very least for membership of this club you will need assets […]

journalism

High-end bankers aim high

The Australian, Wealth IT isn’t possible to have too much money. But it is possible to have too little debt. This is one of the main differences between choosing private banking services from the private banks born on the shores of Lake Geneva and local retail banks born on the Yarra or Sydney’s harbour. Both kinds of banks cultivate an air of exclusivity but in reality most are open for business from the increasing number of high-net-worth individuals in Australia. […]