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India ushered in the biggest economic reforms in two decades on Friday, allowing big foreign retailers like Walmart, foreign broadcasters and foreign airlines to invest in the country, among other reforms.

Retail sales in the U.S. increased in August by the most in six months, boosted by demand for automobiles along with higher gasoline prices that left consumers with less to spend on other goods. The 0.9 percent gain followed a revised 0.6 percent advance in July that was smaller than initially reported, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The median forecast of 84 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an increase of 0.8 percent. Sales slowed at department stores, apparel retailers and electronics outlets.

Online retailer Amazon.com has tried to become all things to all consumers, but in California, it is about to take on a role it has fought against for years: tax collector.

The California tax man cometh, and he's headed for the Internet. State tax collectors are preparing to crack down on renegade Internet merchants who don't collect sales taxes, and nearly 100 new state auditors, lawyers and other specialists are being hired to help over the next three years.

Most retailers, including Costco Wholesale Corp and Limited Brands Inc , posted better-than-expected sales gains at existing stores in August, in what is expected to be a healthy month as parents and students wrapped up back-to-school purchases.

In an effort to follow trends, students and their families are delaying back-to-school purchases, which could hurt an economy heavily dependent on consumer spending to stay afloat.

Best Buy Co. Inc. and its founder and former chairman Richard Schulze say they have an agreement that will allow Schulze to pursue his plan to try to buy the nation's largest consumer electronics chain.

Best Buy's worse-than-expected second-quarter earnings may provide ballast for the company's founder and his hope to buy it back. But the results also raise the question of whether the struggling retailer has time to turn itself around, in public or in private.

U.S. electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc named Hubert Joly, the former head of hospitality and travel company Carlson, as its new chief executive on Monday, hoping to tap the French businessman's acumen in turning around ailing businesses.

AMERICANS are obsessed with their scores. Credit scores, G.P.A.'s, SAT's, blood pressure and cholesterol levels -- you name it. So here's a new score to obsess about: the e-score, an online calculation that is assuming an increasingly important, and controversial, role in e-commerce.