Insights

Global confidence in Australian innovation kicks up a notch this week as rival US crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo host duelling roadshows aiming to lift the number of local start-ups taking their ideas to the world.

Treasury Wine Estates, the world's biggest pure-play winemaker, has one more contentious issue to juggle as it searches for a new CEO and is staring down the barrel of a multimillion-dollar class action from aggrieved shareholders.

A week after managing to get voted back in as chairman of Treasury Wine Estates, Paul Rayner will faced renewed pressure to sell its value-destroying US wine business after a multimillion-dollar class action casts a pall over the company.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has urged the government to put the big banks' dominance under a microscope as part of its inquiry into the financial system, saying the industry lacks a level playing field.

Reports that Future Fund chairman David Gonski plans to quit to take up the chairmanship of ANZ may read like transition serendipity, but in the game of musical chairs someone has to lose their seat.

Industry Super Australia has appointed former climate change minister Greg Combet as its adviser ahead of the ''son of Wallis'' financial systems inquiry.

A small Australian company has benefited from Greenland's decision to relax its hardline stance against uranium mining.

Rising rents and wages, stagnant sales and steep discounting from competitor Kathmandu are to blame for the collapse of adventure-wear retailer Snowgum, managing director Ross Elliott says.

Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti knows how it feels when the wrong name slips out. So he will feel for NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner, who was at Sydney Airport to welcome a long line of head honchos from China Southern who had flown from Guangzhou on the airline's inaugural A380 service.

Argo Investments has warned of weak earnings growth in Australia over the coming year as subdued economic conditions force companies to cut costs.

The sharemarket closed at a five-year high as the big banks lifted before the release of NAB and ANZ results.

The US economy has largely completed its process of debt repayment in the private sector that began as a consequence of the global financial crisis, a former director of the US Congressional Budget Office says.

Higher house prices, lower interest rates and an improvement in business confidence after the October federal election are tipped to lead to better Christmas trading for retailers and office landlords, according to GPT Group.

Seven Victorian universities will show off their latest technological innovations to school students and the public in a high-tech showcase at Melbourne Town Hall from midday on Tuesday. Part of Knowledge Week, the free event has been co-ordinated by NICTA's Victorian research laboratory. Register at:

Toshiba will launch a multifunction printer on Tuesday capable of wiping ink from printed pages and reprinting them up to five times. It would be suitable for the thousands of draft and proof documents printed each year, the company said.

Australian mission-critical cloud provider Bulletproof Networks has announced its intention to list on the ASX. It would be Australia's first ASX-listed pure-play cloud services company. Bulletproof has recorded more than 40 per cent compound annual growth over the past five years.