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The global economy is gaining momentum. But only in America is the acceleration likely to last

THE dog days of August have often spelled trouble for the world economy. In 2011 America’s politicians flirted with default and the euro seemed to be heading for collapse. The summer of 2012 brought another bout of euro angst and depressing evidence that many emerging economies had stalled. But so far this season the good news has outweighed the bad.
After a year and a half of recession, the euro area’s economy has begun to grow again. Its GDP rose at an annualised rate of 1.1% in the second quarter Britain’s recovery has gathered pace. Evidence is mounting that...Read more...

Moody’s credit downgrade hits Cook County

The ongoing public pension crisis that has hit the credit ratings of Illinois and Chicago took its toll on Cook County government Friday.
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the county’s general obligation debt one level, to A1 from Aa3. The action affects $3.7 billion worth of the county’s general obligation debt, although the new rating still implies a low credit risk. Read more...

Texas added 19,900 jobs in July as the unemployment rate stayed flat

Texas’ job growth bounced back in July, but not enough to lower the state’s unemployment rate.
Economists, however, see the signs of a stabilizing labor landscape.
Employers statewide added 19,900 jobs last month, up from a loss of 3,800 positions in June, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday. The state agency revised June’s figure downward from an initial gain of 5,800 jobs.
“The biggest change I see in the employment data is stabilization,” said Pia Orrenius, a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “Some of the volatility — the fiscal cliff and the sequester [automatic federal funding cuts] — that we saw earlier in the year is going away, and it looks like that really impacted the timing of hiring in the state.” Read more...

AOL lays off about 500 at Patch local news unit

AOL said Friday it is laying off about 500 employees at Patch, or about half of the total workforce working for the local news site division.
The New York-based media company is also closing or consolidating about 150 of the 900 news sites that are designed to compete with local newspapers for online viewers and local merchants' advertising budgets. Read more...

Business term of the day - Term for August 17, 2013: "Business stature"

Business stature is a term describing the different levels associated to an individual's position or prominence in a business, market or group of associated business professionals. For example if a person in a company serves in a director level for a given department or division (of a company) he/she will look to work or relate to other people of equal level or "stature" to have trust in and look to for sharing ideas and guidance.
Many folks inside of corporate situations are often left puzzled why they do not get the buy in, traction or respect from certain people within prospective clients or organizations. What actually occurs is the requested person for engagement does not feel a sense of "equal business stature"and will not respond to the request. Business stature can be analogous to class snobbery or hierarchy in the non business society.
Understanding business stature can make or break a person's career, business performance, success and self esteem.

Moto X: A phone for everyone that dares to innovate (review)

The Moto X proves you can still make a great phone even if it’s not the fastest one around.
It offers the most comfortable Android phone experience I’ve seen yet, with hardware that shows iPhone levels of obsession and features that you can’t find anywhere else. And it’s readily accessible for just about anyone , even though it still manages to be plenty innovative. Read more...

Microsoft vs.Google: When tech firms fight, you lose either way

If there's a technology out there that users love, there's probably a company that doesn't want it integrated with their own services.
This week, Google admitted that it had deliberately blocked some of the functionality of Microsoft's latest attempt at a native YouTube app for Windows Phone. Google chalked up its decision to a determination that Microsoft had violated YouTube's terms of service, even after the two companies tried working together on a version of the app based on HTML5.Read more...