LAURA SLATTERY looks back on the week in business

Dictionary corner: "Circles"

Forget friends and followers, at Google+, social networking is all about circles – groups of segregated friends, family and indeed, the rather cold-sounding “acquaintances”. Now that Google+ has decided to give users the option to make their gender private, this will give rise to messages such as “Laura added you to their circles”, which as Google product manager Frances Haugen (a woman) admits is “grammatically questionable . . . no need to message me about it”.

Hard currencyIt is not every week that a new currency is launched, although it might seem that way if the euro zone ever splinters into more than a dozen monetarily incompatible jigsaw pieces. The South Sudan pound, the currency of the world's newest country, is now arriving by the airplane-load into the capital, Juba.

The oil-rich but undeveloped country of South Sudan held an independence ceremony last Saturday at the mausoleum of its late leader John Garang and an image of Garang will adorn the new pound.

THE QUESTION: Why won't the US just raise its debt ceiling

Credit ratings agency Moody’s has been busy this week, barely pausing for breath after junking of Ireland’s debt before warning that it is putting the US’s rating on review for a possible downgrade. This is the US that has been triple-A rated since 1917.

In many ways, Moody’s is catching up rather than leading the way here: Standard Poor’s gave a similar warning in April, while China’s biggest credit rating agency, Dagong, actually removed its triple-A rating from the US (and Britain, France and Germany) last year.

At the heart of the Moody’s decision lies a fractious political debate about increasing Washington’s $14.3 trillion debt limit. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that raising the debt ceiling is necessary in order to avoid a catastrophic default by the US on its debt payment obligations – an event that would make the crisis in the euro zone seem like a jammed piggy bank by comparison.

Republicans however are making their support contingent on a budget agreement that sharply limits future spending by Barack Obama, while Obama and the Democrats want the money to be funded through tax increases for the wealthy.

While these acrimonious, ideological political negotiations continue, investors are getting jumpy. An agreement must be forged to raise the debt ceiling by August 2nd or else the bills won’t get paid. However, there’s another risk for Obama – if the Republicans can persuade voters that he is not acting in a fiscally responsible manner throughout all this, it could damage his re-election chances.

STATUS UPDATE

Supermarket exit:After one final campaign, Jamie Oliver is to end his partnership with Sainsbury's, thought to be worth £1 million a year. Cash is dispensed below the scanner.

Seven-day sun:Ownership of the domain name Sunonsunday.co.uk was transferred from an outfit calling itself Mediaspring to the Sun'spublisher, News International.

Planet of Who: Doctor Whowas BBC Worldwide's biggest- selling export last year, with revenues rising almost 50 per cent, thanks to a push by BBC America. A clutch of top brands earned the BBC more than £300 million.

$25 million

- the sum allocated by the successful Qatar 2022 World Cup bid to a prototype stadium air-cooling system.