Economy, Business, & Finance

Advocates for older Americans are watching closely to see how the Super Committee’s work might lead to retirement benefit cuts. Meanwhile, a big squeeze on the administrative budget of the Social Security Administration goes mostly unnoticed.

Medicare will cut Social Security's "raise" in 2012.

“Starving the beast” is a favorite conservative strategy for forcing cuts in federal spending. The idea is to deprive the government of revenue in order to force spending cuts – and resistance to new taxes is a central feature of the current Super Committee deliberations in Washington.

Abuja — President Good luck Jonathan yesterday justified the impending removal of fuel subsidy and highlighted the gains to the economy, saying it would unlock capital that would be used for critical infrastructural development.
He also stated that his government had already commenced the provision of social safety nets to moderate the effects of the policy on the most vulnerable segments of the society. He, however, did not elaborate.

One of Britain's most successful retailers, Sir Stuart Rose, on why he is happy to pay more tax.
The former Marks & Spencer boss, Sir Stuart Rose, has said he is happy to pay extra tax while the UK is going through a difficult time.

Kenya is seeking money from the International Monetary Fund to support the ailing shilling.
The weak shilling has made imports more expensive and contributed to the cost of living, shooting up fivefold in 12 months.
Addressing investors at the Nairobi Stock Exchange, President Mwai Kibaki, said the Government had asked for additional cash under the extended credit facility.

US and European shares decline as concerns continue about eurozone debts and the strength of the global economy.



Shares fall on eurozone debt and world economy fears

The Russian search company Yandex takes center stage as Seedcamp Week gets underway in London, bringing together up and coming entrepreneurs with investors and mentors.

From Russia, with entrepreneurial expertise. Kickstarting this year's Seedcamp week in London is Ilya Segalovich, chief technology officer at Yandex. If you've never heard of it, you might want to get Googling.

Wikileaks' media partners have strongly criticized the whistleblower group's decision to release its entire archive of US cables uncensored.
Wikileaks says all 251,287 of the leaked diplomatic cables are now online in a searchable format.

It comes amid a row between Wikileaks and the Guardian newspaper over who was behind the earlier release of thousands of un-redacted cables.
The papers said they were "united in condemning" the uncensored release.
Wikileaks has already published tens of thousands of the cables and had planned to keep doing so until November this year.

Manufacturers in Brazil have been hit by the strong currency

Brazil's central bank has unexpectedly cut the country's key interest rate to 12% from 12.5%, citing a "substantial deterioration" in the outlook for the global economy.

The bank's rate-setting committee voted five to two in favor of the cut.
It had raised rates five times this year in order to combat rising prices.

The surprise cut has raised questions about the independence of the central bank, after a number of politicians called for a rate cut in recent days.

These included President Dilma Rousseff, who took office in January.

'Premature'

According to the Daily Trust News, Stakeholders in the mining sector said they are targeting to create about two million direct jobs for Nigerians from the sector.

Under the Progressive Miners Empowerment Association (PMEA), the miners said if about N200 billion is injected into the sector, it would be revived.

National President of the association, Sunday Ekozin said at a press conference to announce the first Miner Forum aimed at creating awareness, coming up in October that if the government wants to curb the activities of illegal mining in Nigeria, it must collaborate with it.

A group of 12 women from villages in Sierra Leone is in the frontline of a battle to bring solar-powered electricity to rural communities. No small feat, given that rural Sierra Leone is not connected to power. Graeme Williams, MediaClubSA

Twelve women, all trained at Barefoot College in India, are working to bring solar power to rural Sierra Leone at a new Barefoot College opening in the country next month.