British finance minister George Osborne said he would not flinch from his austerity drive, despite increasing pressure to change course after the loss of the country's 'AAA' credit rating and with elections approaching in two years. Moody's dealt Britain its first sovereign rating downgrade on Friday, saying the $2.5 trillion economy faced years more sluggish growth and debt would continue to rise until 2016. Economically the one-notch cut will have limited importance - most of Europe, Japan and the United States have already suffered the same fate, and Britain continues to borrow at historically low rates. But ... (full story)