Fonterra Cooperative Group will release its interim results this Wednesday, with an analyst saying there is downside risk to its full-year earnings per share guidance range of 50-60c a share.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/fonterras-interim-result-out-week-expected-be-steady-not-spectacular-fr-p-200841

US President Donald Trump announced more details of his 2018 “hard power” budget of $US1.15 trillion ($1.64 trillion)  

The proposal is designed to boost the national security apparatus while balancing new spending with cuts to regulations, entitlement programmes and research and grant funding.

The 2018 budget blueprint is similar in size to 2017 spending by the federal government. The details include a centrepiece $US52.3 billion increase for the Department of Defense or 4.9% of the total. Only two other cabinet administrations will increase their budgets: the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/trumps-beltway-new-skinny-budget-looks-lot-hard-power-budget-ns-p-200809

Television New Zealand has acknowledged it needs to become a much leaner organisation as a result of continuous change in the media market. Speaking on NBR Radio, Kevin Kenrick, the chief executive of the state-owned broadcaster – or “video content business,” as it now prefers to position itself – says “what we know is that audiences will continue to fragment and advertising dollars will follow audiences.”

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nothing-table-tvnz-restructure-kenrick-confirms-ng-p-200814

The government signed several more air services agreements, including one with Colombia, bringing the total number of countries and territories to 61. Most of the new agreements are with countries that do not have international airlines in this region, such as Kenya, Botswana, the Dominican Republic and Guyana but they open up opportunities for codeshares with airlines serving those countries.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/carry-new-aviation-deals-air-nz-boosts-adelaide-and-more-ng-p-200745

Hidden within the walls of the Commerce Commission is a windowless room smelling faintly of goats. There, in the final stages of a competition inquiry, a bleating beast is led in from the straw-covered pen in the carpark and humanely slaughtered, whereupon its entrails are spilled for close examination by a commissioner skilled in the art of hepatoscopia.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hunters-corner-baseball-offers-model-rugby’s-tv-future

It’s starting to look like something of a classic bait and switch. Six months from the election and despite continuing poor polls, Labour strategists are more confident than ever that Andrew Little can become prime minister after September 23.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hooton-andrew-littles-path-power

It’s difficult to say "trump card” these days. Thoughts turn inevitably, if reluctantly, to the insomniac Tweeter-in-Chief in the White House.

Call it the “feel-good” factor if you have a taste for such clichés.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/order-paper-problems-success-and-success-problems

There was a brief, glorious time when policy was evaluated using economics. Policy advice then had discipline and logic backed by 250 years of intellectual inquiry.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hidesight-policy-wonks-head-down-old-mcdonalds-farm

Just when you thought the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill could not get any more racist in its bias toward Maori, the government to its discredit has sprung an ugly surprise. Businesses throughout the country should be gravely concerned, unless they are Maori tribal corporations expecting to profit.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/money-iwi-get-bigger-say-resource-bill

Q. What’s the world’s fastest car? A. The rental you hired last summer.

Last week, while completing a story assignment for another publication, I found myself at the wheel of a rental car.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/motoring-rental-cars-rule-well-when-it’s-mazda3-anyway