tv World Business Today CNN May 17, 2011 1:00am-2:00am PDT
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thank you. >> same here. >> good luck tonight with your show here. >> thank you. >> and i hope you rock and roll here for years. >> thank you. >> i can't think of a better place. >> oh, you're so sweet. >> lovely to see you. >> you too. >> and it's nice to have you here in vegas. >> it's been such a pleasure. it is. thank you. that's it for tonight. i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. here are the headlines at this hour. irish police say they discovered a diffused a bomb near dublin, just hours before queen elizabeth is scheduled to arrive for her official state visit. the queen's visit to ireland will go ahead as planned. this was always anticipated.
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last night, the irish police received a warning about a device which would be on some form of public transport. it was discovered on a private bus just outside dublin. the passengers were evacuated and the devices made safe after about two hours. it was defused. this can is coming now three hours before the queen is supposed to touch down at the girng of a four-day states visit. this is the largest security operation in the history of the irish state. some 10,000 police and army are guarding various roots and vantage points around dublin city and beyond. there is a serious disruption to commuters trying to travel into dublin to work this morning. they've been asked to use only public transport. the government is hoping that this visit will do so much for the country of ireland in terms of tourism and relations between britain and ireland that they're hoping the irish public will be
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able to forgo the disruption to their lives over the next few days. >> thank you. those are the headlines. i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. "world business today" starts now. good afternoon from cnn hong kong and a very warm welcome to "world business today." i'm andrew stevens. >> and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. these are the top stories on tuesday, may 17th. from a $3,000 a night suite to a notorious new york jail, imf boss dominique strauss-kahn is denied bail, the spotlight turns to his successor. finance ministers in brussels are giving portugal cash in a crisis and turning the screws on greece. ♪ real estate was booming homes were on the rise ♪
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♪ that ain't right and don't just blame the bankers for the mortgage mess. the wall street rappers hoping their lyrics will hit home. just before dawn in new york where imf chief dominique strauss-kahn will be waking up after a second night in custody. strauss-kahn is facing criminal charges including attempted rape of a maid at this new york hotel on saturday. further allegations of past sexual misconduct are emerging. including an attack on a young female. the woman at the center of the claim is apparently considering filing an official complaint. cnn is seeking comment from strauss-kahn's lawyers about these allegations. we'll bring you more as we get it. meanwhile, the fight to replace strauss-kahn at the international monetary fund is
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under getting under way. we'll be looking at the contenders for the job later in the program. nina? his status -- the international monetary fund chief was denied bail in new york on monday and confined to a jail cell on rikers island, just off manhattan. >> dominique strauss-kahn. >> instead of a glittery financial conference in europe, dominique strauss-kahn entered an old new york city criminal courtroom facing sexual assault charges, looking haggard after more than a day in police custody. one of the world's most powerful financial titans spent the night in a prison cell after authorities did a forensic examination of him, looking for scratch marks and physical evidence following the allegations. in addition, he underwent a
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humiliating perp walk publicly handcuffed. he was charged with attempted rape and sexual abuse. the alleged attack was on a 32-year-old black woman, reportedly an african immigrant in a luxury hotel suite. the prosecution said he shut the door and prevent the victim from leaving, attempted to remove her panty hose and forcibly grabbed her between the legs. prosecutors argue that bail should not be granted for the wealthy frenchman because he could leave the country and never return. >> the defendant has additional motivation to fly. we also know that the defendant has personal and financial resources to in fact flee. >> reporter: the defense says strauss-kahn called the hotel asking that his cell phone be delivered to the airport, proof he wasn't fleeing. strauss-kahn's attorney says he has a daughter in new york, that strauss-kahn could stay with her and offered to post bail. >> he's a well respected
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international person. he's also probably the most easily identified individual in the world today as a result of the publicity that has been generated during the past 72 hours. >> reporter: judge melissa jackson says the law applies to strauss-kahn as in any other defendant. >> we are disappointed but this case has just begun. he's still presumed innocent. i would ask all of you to please allow him the presumption of innocence so we can hopefully still get a fair trial when that happens. >> reporter: prosecutors say they believe strauss-kahn engaged in similar acts previously and could become like film director roman polanski if set free. he will appear in court on may 20th. >> strauss-kahn's attorney says he is innocent of all the charges. he's expected to appear before a grand jury but will wait it out in a prison cell in isolation on
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rikers island off manhattan. the man himself who helps countries get bailed out with cash could not himself get bailed out. >> from that cell in rikers island, dominique strauss-kahn is probably wishing he was back in europe. that's where he was supposed to be on monday as an ecofin meeting got under way without him. we go to jen defterios in brussels. that was weighing heavily on the minds of the delegates there. what sort of reaction were you picking up yesterday on this shocking piece of news? >> andrew, it wasn't part of the quote, unquote, official agenda but you can safely say it was discussed. administrators arrived this morning after burning the midnight oil last night on what
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was a full agenda. in fact, the trials and tribulations of dominique strauss-kahn prompted an emotional response from a senior european official. >> i didn't like the pictures i've seen on the tv this morning. it was deeply saddened. but mr. strauss-kahn is part of the american justice system. it makes me deeply, deeply sad. >> mr. yonker called dominique strauss-kahn a personal friend and was dismaid by what he saw. he didn't agree with the walk of shame that dominique strauss-kahn was put forward with. he also said he didn't know the details of the charges. another thing they did add, they went ahead with a full agenda with dominique strauss-kahn's
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replacement. they sent off a package of $110 million to portugal. they are convinced that portugal has turned a corner. ireland at 10.5% is quite high. they think ireland cannism port their way out of trouble. portugal there with a deficit targeted at 6% for the year. the real problem and all of a sudden the screws have been turned on greece at this meeting with the deficit target of 9.5%. it was supposed to be below 8% this year. there's extreme concern right now that the debt, soaring to 157% of gdp is a problem. the minister of greece, minister s santino will have to make a decision. they want to come back to the table and finish an audit that's taking place on greece and
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revisit this issue in luxembourg in june. >> this weighs heavily around the world. another issue is the replace had the, the new chief of the european central bank. much talk about that? >> there was, in fact at this late press conference which happened late last night, mario draghi, got the full support. there's a process that needs to play out through the european council and a vote within the european parliament. they don't expect much resistance. the new head of the central bank taking that position in the autumn. it does raise a huge question about this international monetary fund position. angela merkel said the job should go to a european. she said it already, and that an emerging market candidate could
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have it in the medium term in the halls and the meetings here, one of the names being floated is christine lagarde. fluent in english and well respected in international circles. i would imagine this debate, and this is interesting to watch here in the hall, some of the earl yi candidates don't normally survive. it will be interesting to see how this place out in the next 30 to 60 days. >> she'd be the fifth french person to be the head of the imf since the founding in 1944. the emerging markets, particularly the chinas, indias and brazils would have a lot to say about that. john defterios, thanks so much. nina? let's look at the european stock markets. all of this uncertainty that john was eluding to in brussels is having its effect on stock markets and currencies.
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second day of losses for some of these european markets, a number of them down by 0.5% in the first hour and ten minutes of trading. one company we're focusing on is vodafone. it posted full-year net profits. that stock is rising about 1.5%. the reason to are that is because revenues came in ahead of expectations. bp also in the mix. we'll be telling our viewers about that after its planned share swap. they seem to have missed the deadline. those are the things hitting home on the markets. the euro zone debt crisis continuing. we monitor the situation in brussels, andrew. >> absolutely. that debt crisis still creating ripples in israel as well until greece gets sorted out. there's still a lot left in this story, no doubt.
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here in asia, the picture you see there, mixed, generally on the upside, though. hong kong's hang seng the only loser. benchmarks in tokyo, shanghai and sydney all making gains today. they are, you can see the numbers there, australia up by 0.75%. the best performer here. but if you look at that, it was a reasonably flat day across the region. nina? let's turn our attention towards america now. trading over there and a choppy session on wall street on monday after weak manufacturing data and also below estimate earnings from the home improvement retailers such as lowe's. the end of the session, losses were across the board, mirroring the passing we've seen here in europe for at least one or two days so far. it was an especially bad day for the nasdaq. take a look at that. it lost 1.6%. that was thanks to heavy losses on yahoo! stock. that's continuing, obviously that situation with the ongoing
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dispute with the largest esst e-commerce website. now, is bp's proposed deal off altogether? the deadline for the talks have seemed to pass. we'll tell you what we know so far. and the truth behind the tragic death of 228 people is at the finger tips of investigators. the latest on the 2009 air france crash, just ahead. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.
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financial times" reported that rosneft refused to extend the deadline with bp on negotiations. now, it would have been part of a joint venture giving bp an interest in offshore oil and gas exploration in parts of the arctic previously off limb. for that project to have gone ahead, bp was looking to buy out its existing partner in tnkbp. this venture was started on january 14th, the first such agreement between a private international oil firm and state producer. the core of that deal was the 1 billion share swap between bp and rosneft. on february 1st things took a dramatic turn. the deal was blocked by tnkbp, bp's russian partners. on may th new terms were put in place for an arbitration panel giving bp just ten days to find
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a new way to finish the deal to put shares into a trust fund and to keep tnkpb on board. let's go straight to moscow for an update on exactly how this is going to happen. cnn's matthew chance is standing by. matthew, is this deal dead in the water? >> reporter: it seems to be at the moment. in fact over the course of the past few hours there's been a statement issued on the bp website, a joint statement from bp and aar, this con sosortium confirming that the deal with rosneft has not been found. the statement says both bp and aar will intensify efforts to ensure tnkbp's continued success. the statement goes on to say a solution wasn't found.
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the statement also says talks will continue about closer cooperation with rosneft. rosneft for its part has not made any public statements so far. there have been reports on the interfax news agency, though, saying it hasn't renewed its deadline. the other statements we're getting from the other parties says the deadline has not been extend. for the moment, this lucrative, important share swap deal between bp and rosneft is currently off the table, nina. >> and the future of those companies obviously to secure new oil supplies also very much in question. matthew chance, thanks for that update there. andrew? nina, for the families of those killed in the crash of air france flight 447 two years ago, answers could at least be on the horizon. investigators say that they have retrieved all the information on flight data recorders recovered two weeks ago, including conversations in the cockpit during that flight.
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two bodies were also recovered from the fuselage of that downed plane. they're being examined to see if there's enough dna evidence to identify who they were. now, 228 people lost their lives when air france flight plummeted into the atlantic ocean. go back to june 1st, 2009. three hours into that flight from rio de janeiro to paris, the brazilian air force lost radio contact with air france 447 and a short while later, the airline says the plane had crossed through a, quote, thunderous zone with strong turbulence. if you look at -- fast forward here to april of this year, investigators found hundreds of pieces of the plane, including the torn-off tail wing. the flight data recorder were found in early may but they were record by robot submarines more
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than 4,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. and on may 5th, just days later, came the discovery of some of the passengers' bodies, still trapped in their seats. two were brute to the surface, as we said before judges in paris say the rest should be left undisturbed at the bottom of the atlantic. so with retrieval of all the information on those flight data recorders, a preliminary analysis could not be weeks away. we spoke with an aviation expert about the french investigation. an attorney is a former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation. >> the system is different in france than other places in the world. it's different in france from the u.s. they do start their investigation with the possibility of criminal charges and people are in -- and corporations are criminally charged. that process can lead to
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remuneration afor the victims. criminal charges are very rare. there's a real difference of opinion. many people think that the criminal charges get a much more realistic response and people are more concerned and it sends more of a message. france, that's the way they do it in other crashes as well. >> those recorders were discovered after a search operation that cost from $50 million. finally, nina, it looks like we may be getting some answers. >> it seems as though we are. coming up next, we'll be investigating scenes of destruction at japan's fukushima daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on march 11th. just ahead, the latest in the commercial fallout for the company that runs the plant and other firms hit by the disaster. e with crunchy oats
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live from cnn london and hong kong, you're watching "world business today," welcome back. tepco is to provide a road map today for bringing its quake-hit reactors under control. that would likely include booking billions of dollars in net losses and the decommissioning of its crisis hit reactors. tepco's share price certainly taking a hit on that news. ramie inocencio joining us. ramy, investors didn't like what they heard. >> the thought of billions of dollars in losses as well as the loss of the future reactors would make investors nervous about tepco. that's what we're seeing in reaction to tepco shares today. let me bring up this chart right here. today tepco shares tumbled the most since april 5th, closing down more than 9.5% at close, 380 yen a share. this is adding to massive
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decline since march 11th, the day of the quake and the tsunami. shares are now down about more than 82% since that fateful day of the quake and the tsunami. this follows tokyo's call to tepco's lenders to forgive precise is loans as the utility tries to recover. the share price in japan's three largest banks also slid. the president of mitsubishi fj, said those comments came out of the blue and i felt there was something wrong about them. the financial times estimates that the damage caused is estimated at $25 billion. japan's major companies decided not to issue numbers because of supply chain problems. >> you mention toyota there. ramy, i want to ask you about toyota. it's had major problems with its
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supply chain, not the only one, of course, because of quake and the tsunami. it's not just that which is a problem for toyota. there's consumer problems still in the united states. >> yes, toyota just got word that u.s. car owners have gotten the green light to sue them and this revolves around the accidental acceleration problems we've been reporting. a u.s. federal judge ruled that owners can directly blame toyota for causing the value of their vehicles to fall. that's because toyota didn't disclose or fix the defects. toyota tried to, of course, get this group of lawsuits dismissed saying owners couldn't prove their action or inaction caused a decline in vehicle value. now that's not going to happen. the company is afraid if these claims do go ahead, it might open the door to more lawsuits based on similar arguments. knowing the u.s. love for suing people, i think all of us are expecting that just might happen. >> i can just imagine being an attorney at toyota and wondering what's going to happen next, okay, ramy inocencio, our asia
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business editor. corporate japan may be suffering as we heard. elsewhere in asia, the made more buoyant. coming up, we take a look at what people are doing to go beyond borders to tap the region's rise as well as the opportunities that it presents. >> and we'll be having more on the scandal surrounding the imf chief dominique strauss-kahn. we'll be taking a look at the man and the candidates getting ready for a shot at his job. all that and more to come on "world business today."
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i'm nina dos santos in london. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. top story this tuesday, the man european countries have turned to for bailouts has himself been denied bail in the united states. imf chief dominique strauss-kahn is now in jail awaiting his next court appearance in new york after being refuse ed bail by a local court judge on monday. his new digs will be a sharp contrast with the $3,000 a night suite in which he's accused of trying to rape a hotel maid on saturday. since strauss-kahn's arrest, allegations of past sexual misconduct have been resurfacing. brian todd takes a look at how those accusations may weigh against the imf chief in his current brush with the law. >> reporter: his attorney and his wife vigorously defend dominique strauss-kahn. saying the imf's managing director is innocent of the charges. prosecutors suggest there may be a pattern to his alleged
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behavior. >> some of this information could report that he has engaged in conduct similar alleged in the complaint on at least one other occasion. >> reporter: a french journalist says strauss-kahn tried to rape her nine years ago in a paris apartment. one of them only mentioned it briefly in court. >> this is an individual with no criminal record. i can't respond to allegations that were made in a foreign country that did not result in any criminal prosecution. >> reporter: she did not report the alleged incident to the french lease at the time. why not? her mother told a french tv station what she told her daughter at the time. >> there wasn't rape strictly speaking. there was an attack. for the rest of your life you would have on your resume, you know, that's the girl who --
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well -- >> reporter: this reporter who wrote a profile of dominique strauss-kahn in the washingtonian magazine says this about strauss-kahn's wife, american-born ann sinclair. >> she's always beside him, taking his arm wherever he goes. so yes, there have been probably some ups and downs but she has been by his side. >> reporter: even during an affair he had a few years ago. shortly after joining the imf, strauss-kahn was investigated for what he later acknowledged was an improper relationship with a female employee, an independent investigation found that the relationship was consensual and there was no harassment, favoritism or abuse of power by him. strauss-kahn did later apologize to the imf, his family and the employee. i asked this harassment attorney about that case. does that particular case have any relevance here? >> it's a different kind of standard, civil standard. the fact that he engaged in an improper relationship with
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someone at work shows his character and poor judgment but it may not be relevant legally to this issue of sexual assault. >> reporter: dominique strauss-kahn may have other legal problems in france. the attorney for that young woman, now says he's preparing documents against strauss-kahn. brian todd, cnn, washington. the role of managing director of the imf is an extremely prestigious one, requiring expertise in economics and international relations. let's look at the possible contenders, mohamed el-erian, he's french and egyptian by birth. he's the chief executive officer and chief investment officer of the world's largest bond fund, pimco based in california. he helps to manage $1.2 trillion. he spent 15 years at the imf himself. also in the cards, kemal dervis,
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the former head of the international development program. he spent 22 years at the world bank. also, this man is from mexico, agustin carstens. he's a former finance minister and highly respected. and montek-singh ahluwalia. he's a member of the influential washington advisory board, the group of 30. he served the finance and economy ministries in india. one of the early candidates or favorites for the job is gordon brown, chancellor for ten years under tony blair. he often says he wants the top job but does lack the backing of the current prime minister, david cameron. one of the favorites is this
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lady, christine lagarde. she's from the same country as strauss-kahn himself. as you were saying, andrew, france has often giveren the imf a number of managing directors. she's also the first female to hold various positions. first female to be the finance minister for a g8 nation. she's also renowned lawyer, spent many years in the united states. she was the former chairman of baker mckinzy, first woman to hold that position. she's even interned on capitol hill. she could be one of the favorites as well. >> it is very important to note, obviously, the top job at the international monetary fund has always been held by a european. you're mentioning christine lagarde. of the ten imf bosses since the fund was created in 1944, four have come from france. krisz teen lagarde would be number five. developing countries are increasingly insistent that their growing clout ought to be reflected at the highest levels of the imf, yet despite their calls for a place at the top
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table, candidates from emerging economies may still face an uphill battle. i want to show you something here. take a look at this. this is how the voting rights break down among the imf members. as you can see there, the u.s. has 17.1% of the voting rights. this is sort of in line with what the global economies do. what you notice here, u.s. is 17, easily the biggest. japan next. you've got then germany, france, china and india down here. remember, china, of course, is now the second biggest economy in the world. much bigger than germany, much bigger than france. japan is the third biggest economy. this is why particularly the emerging countries like china even india, which is now the 11th biggest economy, are starting to push for more clout at the imf. they say our economies are growing. you go forward 20 years, most surveys will say these two here will be among the top three or four economies in the world.
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china will be the biggest in the world. it's that time. they claim that they should have more imf membership. european leaders meanwhile and eu officials have given a clear signal that they won't give up their place at the top table. certainly not without a fight. just as nina said, the first call -- front-runner is christine lagarde. this will be an interesting period, considering what's happened to dominique strauss-kahn. people say there's more leverage for markets to come in and say we need a new broom. this is what the regime has worked for up until now. it's basically for our time in the sun. it will be an interesting race. >> also in accordance with rising economic clout, andrew, in fact a number of the candidates i was showing you and our viewers do come from the emerging markets. or even if they live in the united states, they have link to the emerging markets.
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let's see how this is affecting the european markets at the moment. we're about 90 minutes into the trading day. john defterios has been bringing us up to date with the situation in brussels and the uncertainty surrounding potential changes at the helm of the imf, ecb, et cetera, the euro zone debt crisis, very much affecting the markets. we're currently experiencing a second day of declines for the euro zone so far this week in terms of equity markets. the ftse 100 is one market we'll show you now. it's down by 0.15% at the moment. we had british inflation figures, 12-month inflation jumping to 4.5% for the month of april. do remember the bank of england, governor mervyn king said a couple weeks ago he said that inflation across the british isles could peak at 5%. not good news at all.
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this continues to be very much an underkrun at cross investors' minds at the moment. here's the story in asia. australia the biggest gainer up by 0.75%. apart from that, though, it was a pretty quiet day. now, still to come on "world business today," launching into the final chapter of one phase of space history. what's next for the space shuttle "endeavour"? and the global recession has made getting a job -- a harder job in some places but not all. we'll tell you where the business buzz is these days. stay with us.
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let's bring you up to date with the situation in ireland. the queen on her first state visit to the republic of ireland. we had been reporting that two explosive devices had been found, one in ireland and one had been defused in dublin. it now turns out that was a hoax. that's the latest on that situation in ireland with regard
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to those two explosive devices that we reported to be found in ireland across the republic of ireland on the day of the queen's first state visit to the republic there. it seemed that the one in dublin was a hoax. zero and liftoff for the final launch of "endeavour." expanding our knowledge, expanding our lives in space. >> and with that, 1 -day final mission began for the space shuttle "endeavour." it left the launch pad on monday morning, headed for the international space station. >> always extraordinary photos there. "endeavour" will be retired after this trip, closing out its 19-year run for the shuttle fleet, the space shuttle "atlantis" is scheduled to carry out the program's final launch next month. nasa has hired two commercial companies to keep the space station supplied and russia and europe have pledged to help with
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cargo emissions. after "endeavour's" return, scheduled for june 1st, it will go on display at the california science center in los angeles, not before it carries a $2 billion piece of equipment into space, a particle detector that's designed to analyze cosmic rays. "endeavour" is the youngest nasa shuttle. i was reading, nina, in that vacuum between the end of the space shuttle and the commercial ones coming online, it will cost about $49 million to take you to the space station. that's a fairly expensive taxi ride. >> the cost of the space race is something the united states may not have enough money for. the united states reached its debt ceiling. the limit is just under $14.3 trillion here. the u.s. secretary -- treasury secretary says he can do creative accounting to stay
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below that until at least august 2nd. the question is what happen after that. it turns out that lawmakers have two choices here. and neej of them is particularly good. first they can either cut spending or raise taxes by several hundred billion dollars. that would get the u.s. through until september when the fiscal year ends. the second option is to say that the u.s. can't pay what it owes and it would effectively default on some of its loans. the problem isn't, of course, going to go away. some people have been saying that's why since 19 2 the debt ceiling has been raised a staggering 74 times. the last ten times have been since back in 2001. and with that in mind, the state of the economy in the u.s. has many young job hunters looking beyond borders and why asia looks so attractive to many of the newest graduates from the u.s. and elsewhere. >> reporter: with bull runs, ipo listings and lucrative property deals, asia has become the
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center for global economic growth. >> congratulations. >> reporter: and as the world realizes this continent's enormous potential, thousands of young americans are making the long haul flight across the pacific to forge their careers halfway around the world. 23-year-old sara greenberg is one of them. a corporate analyst from new york who arrived in hong kong just four months ago. >> i think the world is heading out in this discretion more and more. and to understand how the markets out here work, where the opportunities are, i think it's a huge advantage going forward and the reason that i ended up deciding to come out here. >> reporter: while the banks, fund managers and law firms are hiring the majority of international recruits, asia is becoming very attractive to entrepreneurs. >> being around people who are enthusiastic and eager to start businesses and get involved in business was a real draw for me. >> reporter: michael tennanbaum
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realized he could start his own technology business, something he only dreamed about in the u.s. >> what we're doing in terms of technology venture would not be possible in the united states. the people we want to hire for our business at trader analytics are based in asia. >> reporter: part of the attraction of cities in hong kong is asia's extraordinary growth. while the u.s. and europe is still recovering from the financial crisis, china is expecting 9% growth this year. as long as the opportunities are here in the region, americans will keep coming. recruitment agencies says it's seeing a dramatic increase in the number of professionals moving to asia. of its 560 global placements last year, one-third of its clients came to asia, the majority from the u.s. and europe. >> if you're looking at the post-university outtake as it were, the graduate pool, there's something like 26%, 27% level of
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unemployment in that class the individual, is staggering. that's not the case here. >> reporter: housing, competitive school placements and language bar years present challenges, many believe lower taxation and friendly environment outweigh the benefits. >> it's an tune in the growth prospects going forward. >> reporter: many say that growth won't be slowing down anytime soon. cnn, hong kong.
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♪ real estate was booming ♪ homes were on the rise you way wall street's greedy that's not right ♪ ♪ greed's not the problem, it's the lack of foresight ♪ >> they call themselves the leeman brothaz, with it being spelled differently than the leading icon on wall street. >> they're former bankers. the one who wrote the song was
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once on the payroll of jp morgan chase. they say enough of the bull, the bull on the street, of course. they say wall street has gotten a bum wrap when it comes to the financial crisis blame game. poppy harlow went to the scene of the rhyme, the financial district. >> reporter: the wall street bull, the symbol of american capitalism. although some bankers images may be tarnished from the financial crisis, there are others who say the bankers aren't the only ones to blame. ♪ yeah come on ♪ that's it that's right ♪ put them hands up yeah ♪ greed is good people act how they should ♪ >> the whole thing was an organic process. at the end of the day we were not out there to point fingers or poke at anybody. we wanted to give perspective. it dealt with a lot of consumers
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who were ignorant on the end of getting a mortgage. one day my good friend calls me up and says, you've been frustrated for so long, write a song about it. and i said, done. ♪ real estate was booming homes were on the rise ♪ ♪ you say wall street's greedy that ain't right ♪ ♪ greed's not the problem it's the lack of foresight ♪ >> reporter: what's the message you're sending here? >> individual responsibility. the banks provided the loans but at the same time we as consumers took the loans, too. >> is it wall street's fault, the consumers' fault? the purpose of the video, everybody has to take responsibility, the bankers and consumers. ♪ we helped main street buy some homes ♪ >> video had its satire but at the end of the tire, the video was to give another angle of what cause the the financial crisis. i experienced it directly. >> reporter: you were in the middle of it. >> absolutely. i'm not signature here on the
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wall street mountain living comfortably. i'm in an economic crunch like many other americans are. i wanted to give perspective that i noticed. >> reporter: you guys rap that greed is good. really? >> greed is good. greed as in ambition, greed, ambition for success, for knowledge, for love, for money. we gave them what they wanted and there was a need ♪ first it was baer then it was lehman ♪ ♪ monetary policy ran by ben bernanke ♪ >> we're the leeman brothaz. >> inseed they are. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. in the meantime, if you like that tune we'll let the leeman brothaz lead you out. good-bye for now. ♪ real estate was booming homes were on the rise ♪ ♪ you say wall street's greedy
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