Insights

Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to confirm it will create a “bad bank” with more than £30 billion ($50 billion) of assets following a review of its operations ordered by the British Treasury.

The battle over Australia's dairy assets is set to reach fever pitch, with two Australian companies now potential takeover targets in a scrum that includes five dairy players - three among the world's largest.

'Firing on all cylinders” was how Mike Smith framed it as he handed down ANZ's $6.5 billion bell-ringer this week.

Several suitors hold blocking stakes in the Victorian dairy group, writes Chris Gibson.

The Australian sharemarket has closed slightly higher for the week, after shedding some of its gains following stellar earnings performances by two of the big four banks.

The government's financing arm is wooing potential investors in Canada and the Middle East as it seeks to diversify its borrowing base.

University students are out on the streets protesting about it, but the Abbott government is unlikely to sell off its $20 billion-plus HECS student loan portfolio.

'Give me a break," Charlie, my hard-working economic forecaster, said. Charlie believes Napoleon got it all so wrong in the end because he stopped napping during the day in his later years and lost his ability to out-plan his enemies.

One of the world's many hypocrisies is the manner in which captains of industry tend to be highly critical of the capacity of governments to resolve the problems of the world - but then, when governments come up with ideas that suit their short-term interests, the captains back them in blind.

The stakes are high in bookmaking's staying test, writes Colin Kruger.

A survey shows many managers do not listen, writes Caroline James.

Birds of a feather

Catamarans and Pittwater go hand in sailing glove. Without the commercial traffic plying the harbour, there's a lot more room to move, tack, gybe and reach around in your catamaran. This fact isn't lost on the Royal Motor Yacht Club Broken Bay, which hosts the biggest regattas and mid-week races for multihulls. Berthing and swing moorings are more common up this way, too, but it's the cruising grounds that are unrivalled elsewhere in Sydney.

Online bookmakers see the TAB as ripe for the picking.

TADEUSZ MAZOWIECKI FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF POLAND 18-4-1927 - 28-10-2013

MARCIA WALLACE ACTOR 1-10-1942 - 25-10-2013