Business

This week in The New York Times Magazine, Adam Davidson asks why the borough hasn't been able to catch up with the rest of New York City's phenomenal economic growth:

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Coal demand is at its lowest in more than two decades. That's, in part, because of milder winters and a shift to cheaper natural gas. Coal companies are also facing tough new rules proposals from the Environmental Protection Agency for building new coal-fired power plants. Shares for most coal producers have taken a big hit because of these factors and the slow global economy.

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NPR's business news starts with a record find for Google.

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MONTAGNE: Google is reportedly set to pay a 22 and a half million dollar settlement. That fine would resolve charges that Google snuck past Apple's privacy settings for users of Apple's Safari browser.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this would be the highest fine ever imposed on a single company by the Federal Trade Commission. Google has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Over a decade ago, Britton Nicholas Newlife bet with a bookmaker that Roger Federer would win Wimbledon seven times. The bet was for $2,300 and the odds were 66-1. Newlife died three years ago, but he left his betting ticket to the international charity Oxfam. On Sunday, Federer won his seventh Wimbledon title. Oxfam will receive more than $150,000 in winnings.

The first in an occasional series, Fiscal Cliff Notes, which breaks down the looming "fiscal cliff" of expiring tax cuts and deep automatic spending cuts set to hit around the first of year.

Much of the political focus when discussing the Bush-era tax cuts is on the wealthy, but they're not the only ones who would be affected if the tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of this year.

The vast majority of American taxpayers would take a hit, including Randi Cartmill and Josh Walling, who live in Madison, Wis., with their three children.

Politicians have touted modern manufacturing as the solution for lifting the economy and providing good jobs.

But today's manufacturing work requires strong math skills — not just adding and subtracting, but a good grasp of fractions, decimals and basic trigonometry. And job applicants who want to go into manufacturing often don't have what it takes.

So colleges and nonprofits, especially throughout Illinois, are stepping in to bridge this skills gap by combining manufacturing training with basic reading and math.

Doing Math On The Job

Samsung won a victory in Britain on Monday in its global patent war with Apple over the designs for its tablet computers.

A British judge ruled Samsung's Galaxy Tablets do not infringe on any of Apple's designs for the iPad.

Samsung, however, may have mixed feelings about this decision.

According to Judge Colin Birss, Samsung's Galaxy tablets are not cool enough to be confused with the iPad or violate any of Apple's design patents.

The ruling was a legal victory for Samsung, but if this were a consumer review, it would have been a bloodbath.

Over the last week or so, we've been watching the scandal over manipulation of LIBOR, perhaps the single most important global interest rate: See Robert Smith's piece on Morning Edition, and Tuesday's podcast.

Recovery has been creeping at a slow pace for much of the American economy, but sales by US auto makers have revved up. Chrysler and General Motors both saw double digit growth in June, and Ford wasn't too far behind. Guest host Maria Hinojosa and NPR's Sonari Glinton talk about what's driving the rise.

A lot of the coverage of the LIBOR scandal has focused on the ways that Barclays tried to manipulate LIBOR lower during the financial crisis, to make the bank look more secure. This has led some listeners to ask a good question: if rates were being shoved down, doesn't that help consumers? LIBOR, after all, is a financial benchmark that shows up in adjustable rate mortgages and other loans.

The scandal over LIBOR, a key global interest rate, has already hit banks around the world. Today, it moves to the very heart of the British government.

A deputy governor of the Bank of England will be quizzed by parliament on whether he told banks to lie to about the crucial interest rate.

Some Internet users may be out of luck when they try to log on Monday. They're victims of an international malware attack — a malicious software picked up by their computers online over a year ago. The FBI has turned off Internet servers set up as a stop-gap to keep tens of thousands of victims online.

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And for one more year, college students can access a certain kind of loan for the low rate of 3.4 percent. It's known as a Stafford loan, and the interest rate was set to double, until lawmakers managed to reach an agreement to keep the rate low, which in turn will keep college more affordable for more people.