President Obama announced that Democrats and Republicans have reached agreement on the raising the debt ceiling. But both chambers still must approve the deal, he says.

The world has 5.3 billion mobile phone subscribers, which is 77 percent of the world population. The U.S., in fact, has 87 percent wireless penetration, and the use of mobile phones is rapidly becoming the norm. Combine these statistics with the technology that allows merchants to process a credit card by phone when receiving customer payments and you have the beginning of a paradigm shift in the way retail merchants accept payments for goods. Follow The Stiel Report for on-going reviews of how retailers, wholesalers and general merchandise vendors can take advantage of mobile payments opportunities: http://stiel.org

Rumors are like songbirds; they sound filling but make a poor feast., W. MICHAEL GEAR & KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR, People of the Nightland

Efforts in the United States to reach last-minute agreement to stave off a potentially disastrous federal default sagged today amid partisan discord and distrust, with the House taking a purely symbolic thumbs-down vote on a Democratic debt-ceiling plan and the Senate paralyzed in the face of the prospective filibuster.

"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody." Herbert Bayard Swope (January 5, 1882 – June 20, 1958) was a U.S. editor, journalist and intimate of the Algonquin Round Table.

“They’re acting like 6-year-olds pretty much on both sides.” CAROLYN WAITE,
a librarian from Dedham, Mass., on the debate in Congress over raising the debt ceiling.

- From the New York Times.

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket…for free. View the list of 2011 participating museums: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/

Another reason Indian executives are thriving in a world traumatized by the global meltdown: a sense that businesses need to do more than just make money. "When you talk to these top CEOs, there’s a sense that the corporation is embedded in society," says Harbir Singh, a Wharton professor and a co-author of The India Way. "Most of the executives we surveyed said, ‘You cannot succeed if you don’t help society around you to have a better life.’"

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2084441-1,00.html

Nielsen, the leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers watch and buy, has signed a cooperation agreement with Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, to receive and analyze sales information from Walmart’s U.S. stores. The agreement marks Walmart’s return to the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry’s information sharing model.

Digital Transactions is reporting that security weaknesses have caused Hypercom Corp. to pull the plug on a software system that enables gateways and merchants using personal computers as virtual terminals to connect to payment-processing services. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Hypercom sent a notice on July 15 to users of its SmartPayments Savannah Server. Read more: http://digitaltransactions.net/news/story/3132