With the dream of home ownership out of reach for many young Australians, pressure is growing to provide realistic options for affordable housing that gets renters in on the ground floor.

Now architectual firm Place Studio has developed a "lease-to-own" model which offers a pathway for renters who can eventually build equity in a property they occupy .. and even own it over time.

I speak with Place Studio chief executive James Alexander-Hatziplis.

Wall Street stocks have dived after inflation in the United States came in much hotter-than-expected.

That reality check has seen economists trim back their bets for interest rate cuts - which until now looked imminent.

Also TikTok spruiks $1.1 billion revenue boost to Australian economy in 2023 in face of global security concerns.

The federal government has unveiled a major overhaul of merger laws with the aim of speeding up and streamlining the process for low-risk corporate takeovers to boost competition and protect consumers. Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants more transparency in the process and plans to increase power of the competition watchdog to ensure big takeovers don't result in monopolies where big companies swallow up smaller businesses.

Reporter: Peter Ryan, Senior Business Correspondent

Featured: Jim Chalmers, Federal Treasurer

The federal government is unveiling a major overhaul of merger laws today ... with the aim of speeding up and streamlining the process for low-risk corporate takeovers to boost competition and protect consumers.

But Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants more transparency in the process and plans to supercharge the power of the competition watchdog to ensure big takeovers don't result in monopolies where big companies swallow up smaller businesses .. where competition is stymied and consumers lose out.

The International Monetary Fund says Austrailian borrowers are more sensitve to interest rate rises with more than 80 percent on variable rather than fixed loans.

And former National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Thorburn - outsted after the findings of the banking royal commission - has made a comeback as CEO of the aged care provider HammondCare.

Australia's supermarket giants face multi-billion dollar fines under a mandatory code of conduct being proposed to protect suppliers and consumers - and to rein in the power of the sector. While the review by former Labor minister Craig Emerson turns up the heat on Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, it rejects pressure to break up the sector if they have too much market share..

Reporter: Peter Ryan, Senior Business Correspondent

Featured: Craig Emerson, former Labor minister

Insurance giant IAG is backpaying 19,000 current and former workers more than $21million after an intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman. The company is the latest Australian corporate to be outed over worker underpayments in recent years and in addition to backpaying staff it will also fork out a $650,000 "contrition" payment. Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth says many of the underpaid workers were at the lower end of the pay scale at IAG.

Reporter: Peter Ryan, Senior Business Correspondent

Featured: Anna Booth, Fair Work Ombudsman

The owner of the cash transit company Armaguard has signalled pickups and deliveries of cold hard cash will be maintained for at least three years.

But there's a major condition - banks and major retailers will need to pay a lot more to ensure the "cash in transit" service continues and cash keeps flowing around the economy.

There's more bad news about the lack diversity in corporate Australia with the number of women on the boards of small listed companies going backwards.

And it's not just women - an index from the Governance Institute says there's barely any representation on boards from First Nations people or people with a disability.

I speak with Governance Institute chair Pauline Vamos.

The fallout from the Bruce Lehmann defamation case and fresh allegations about how Channel Seven's Spotlight program scored an exclusive interview with him have broader ramifications for the network's owner Seven West Media. With the explosive case back in the Federal Court today, Seven executives are dealing with escalating reputational damage that threatens the future of Seven's Spotlight program.

Reporter: Peter Ryan, Senior Business Correspondent

Featured: Stephen Mayne, media commentator