Aspen Ideas Fest audience decides natural gas boom doing more harm than good

ASPEN — After an Oxford-style debate Sunday night, environmental attorneys Deborah Goldberg and Katherine Hudson convinced 15 percent of the audience here to change their minds about hydraulic fracturing. Before the debate, only 38 percent of the audience agreed that the detriments of hydraulic fracturing are greater than its benefits but afterward, 53 percent agreed fracking does more harm than good.

Moody’s considers downgrading U.S. credit rating

A scenario former United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson described as “unthinkable” during a recent discussion in Aspen is apparently imaginable in the minds of Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s is the first of the big-three rating agencies to place the United States’ triple-A rating on review for a possible downgrade. The agency said there is a small but rising risk the federal government could default on its debt.

Afternoon News Nuggets: 13 July 2009

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THIN AIR, BIG THOUGHTS: At last week’s Aspen Ideas Fest, Google’s Eric Schmidt on economic evolution and the hurdle created from the cozy relationship between incumbent businesses and regulators: “High-tech works three times…