The sale and run-off of non-core assets, first set out in early 2009 at the start of the RBS's three-to-five-year recovery plan, meant a fifth of the balance sheet was to be non-core, and the balance sheet was to be halved in size.

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Their governments also have a healthier balance sheet than those in the core economies.

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Several hours from the South Pole, in the barren expanses of western Antarctica, a small team of American researchers has just finished their second field-season with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core project.

ECONOMIST: The South Pole as location and metaphor

It continues to shrink its balance-sheet and to look to sell non-core assets.

ECONOMIST: Banks

"Over the past several years, we have rebuilt Citi's capital base and strengthened our balance sheet as well as shed assets and businesses not core to our strategy, " said Michael Corbat, Citi's CEO since October.

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By focusing on our core relationship banking model, we continue to grow revenue, strengthen our balance sheet, become more efficient and maintain peer-leading capital levels.

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Furthermore, the high-quality dating of the WAIS Divide core will make it easy to correlate with cores from Greenland's ice sheet, allowing for a tighter coupling of records from the Artic and the Antarctic.

ECONOMIST: The South Pole as location and metaphor

"Ideally, we like to find a company with a strong core business, a good brand name, a new or at least revitalized management team and a solid balance sheet, " writes Putnam.

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