Media Digest (8/3/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

Fitch and Moody’s kept the U.S. rating at Aaa (Reuters)

Years of slow growth and aging populations in the West could hasten the rise of BRIC economies (Reuters)

Google+ (NASDAQ: GOOG) and the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iCloud product have kept app developers business (Reuters)

Google faces nine antitrust claims in the EU investigation (Reuters)

U.S. broadband speeds are close to those providers promote according to the The Federal Communications Commission (Reuters)

The fight between Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and states over sales taxes has worsened (WSJ)

Research-In-Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) hopes to improve sales with a line of new devices (WSJ)

Banks in Europe try to improve balance sheets as EU financials worsen (WSJ)

The head of the People’s Bank of China said that U.S. financial problems threaten the global financial markets (WSJ)

Home listings have fallen but that has not quickened sales (WSJ)

Capital markets investors has become concerned about the financial viability of Italy and Spain (WSJ)

ComScore has begun to market a product to show the effectiveness of ads on Facebook (WSJ)

Republicans have to deal with negative fall-out from decisions to cut defense (WSJ)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released data that show global inflation had slowed (WSJ)

Shares in MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) dropped as much as 30% after weak earnings (WSJ)

Apple and Samsung have begun aggressive competition for the tablet PC market in Australia (WSJ)

South Korea’s central bank bought gold for the first time in 13 years (WSJ)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) may settle mortgage fraud cases with loan forgiveness for some of its home debt holders (WSJ)

Saudi Arabia will erect the world’s tallest building (WSJ)

Only four U.S. companies have Aaa ratings: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), ADP (NYSE: ADP), and Exxon Mobile (NYSE: XOM) (NYT)

CBS (NYSE: CBS) profits doubled (NYT)

Lobbyists will press client needs as the U.S. cuts expenses (FT)

Apple may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks (FT)

T-Mobile hemorrhages subscribers ahead of the AT&T (NYSE: T) takeover (Bloomberg)

Protests over austerity grew in Greece  (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre