and every year, i'm assuming they're going to have a new ambassador to represent the foundation at the ceremonies and to present a check to that's been raised for their efforts. i think they're going to present a check for a million dollars. but i'm very, very proud to have that rowe, that kind of ad hoc role for them and i'm very, very proud of my union. >> alec, it's been a great pleasure. thank you very much much indeed. >> my thanks to you, piers. >> that's all tonight. . i'm zain very gene at cnn in london. here are the top stories. two aid workers kidnapped in somalia three months ago are free and waiting to be reunited. u.s. special forces raided the kidnappers compound killing the

hostages and freeing jessica buchanan and poul thisted. emergency officials are looking in a brazil collapsed building. they don't know why the adjacent high rises crumbled. one person heard a cracking sound before they fell. french police tell cnn they've arrested the founder of the breast implant company. our affiliate france 2 tv said this man was arrested around the same time. p.i.p. became the focus of an international health scare over the implants. those are the top stories from cnn, the world's news leader. i'm zain verjee and "world business today" starts now. hello, and a very warm welcome to "world business today." we're in hong kong.

>> i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> i'm john at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. on the markets today they take the rough with the smooth as america's central bank holds steady on interest rates. this signals a long road towards recovery. >> in europe angelo merkel says there's only so much germany can do to save the single currency. >> and online sharing isn't always caring for the google users upset about that company's courtesy policies. start on tuesday barack obama pro krams that america it seemed was on amend but on wednesday, the federal reserve, the company's central bank, claimed that it was all but not on amend. the u.s. central bank vowed to keep the interest rates the same through 2014. for the first time it set a

cause for the inflation market at 2%. that's good news poor borrowers. the feds long-term plan is unusual but chairman ben bernanke says that it's a move designed to avoid destabilizing surprises. he says that while unemployment should continue to fall, wide economic growth will be slower than expected. >> stronger economic recovery, to help ensure that inflation over time is at levels consistent with our statutory mandate, the committee will keep the same highly accommodatetive stance. we continued to keep it at 0 to .25%. we think it will warrant exepgsly low levels for the federal funds late until at least 2014. ben bernanke three. let's get more detail.

the feds message appears to be slowly but surely. while there's still no word on a new round of kwaun at thattive easing or qe 3, he's keeping all options open to ensure that he doesn't have to lower the costs yet again. let's just have a look at how things are looking right now. the imf rec cons the u.s. economy grew by 1.8% in 2011. we'll get a better idea when the figures are released on friday. the fed predicts this growth will rise gradually to as high as 2.7% this year and 3.2% next year and 4% then in 2014. the problem, though, is that the central bank doesn't think even this constitutes a full recovery. and there's another catch. that's the fed's tactics don't actually tackle in the current economic climate many individuals and businesses simply can't get loans. there's not enough money to go around. rates have limited meaning

anyway. nina? >> bernanke's opening statement was enough to send the markets into positive territory. some traders sounded a familiar note of caution here. >> we'll run either way with the story, right, and say it's great. the fed is going to be there. on the other hand, you're going to say things aren't as good as the way the fed says. it opens the door for the fed to help stimulate the economy more. that's the overriding factor. we've rallied 100 points. we were down 50, we're up 60. the market likes that. do i necessarily agree with it? it's another manufactured rally. it's frustrating and confusing for investors. the truth; it's confusing for the market. let's take a look at how those markets are fairing in light of what that trader was saying. while it's confusing, and it's

also very difficult, you've go to remember, to figure out how to play a market when you know that interest rates are going to be steady at the historic lows for another three years to come or two years according to ben bernanke's statement. as you can see, these markets mainly positive taking the cues from the rallies that we saw on wall street but these gains aren't particularly substantial. these three markets, with the exception of switzerland, they're only up four-tenths of 1%. the debt crisis has engulfed europe so long is still lingering in investors' minds as that impulse hasn't been broken from private creditors to greece and the government. we had angela merkel making the opening comments at the world economic forum on wednesday, and she pleaded with the markets to give them the space to tackle the problems at hand. in light of those markets let's

talk about another debt auction we have on the cards today. often these debt auctions are a barometer of how things are going. italy will be doing the same later. >> wow, nina. angelo merkel having to plead. things are not looking good. so far as the markets go in asia, things were looking good much earlier in the session. they turned mix. the hang seng doing fairly well. this pickup here in asia has been off the back of what we saw in the u.s. that decision on keeping those interest rates low right through the next couple of years. some of these markets were still shut for the beginning of the year. it was australia day. india is closed for public holiday. hong kong doing well. trading resuming here. closing high. now there's this optimism around about the fed's projection of these interest rates. there are also some major market movers to speak of in asia. a bounce in property stocks following the fed's announcement

on interest rates so closely linked. tepco is up. we all know the problems that tepco has been having at that plant, the nuclear plant over in japan. >> the annual world economic forum is currently well underway. the topic on everybody's lips is the european debt crisis. that's a problem that still remains unresolved from the last time that the world's leaders and business chiefs gathered in davos, switzerland, a year ago. at the heart of that crisis is, of course, greece. overall the mood appears to be one of doom and gloom, but germany is still being seen by many as a leading light. angelo merkel attempted to lead the charge. on wednesday, the day after the international monetary fund, decided to lower its outlook for the global economy, she opened

the proceedings with a warning that the block's richest member would not be making any promises that it says it couldn't be keeping. >> reporter: angela merkel told europe to stop diluting itself. it said reducing debt levels is the only way to maintain credibility. >> translator: the real message of the f diluting this and this is obvious because otherwi we'll lose credibility.

>> reporter: channels lor merkel said although germany is ready and able to help, it won't res r risk everything to deliver against that promise. >> the trouble is the longer the problem persists, the more everyone suffers. we spoke to steven king, a chief economist, who had a warning for the channels lor. >> they want to be faced withholding a bill for bailing out the eurozone. if it's not sorted out, then germany's economy will suffer. time is running out because ultimately if spain, portugal, italy, etc. will really suffer. >> reporter: were you surprised that angela merkel actually said that germany couldn't make promises that she couldn't keep? there's a view she's not doing enough to start with, never mind going all the way? >> i think it's unlikely she's going to make a major

announcement in davos. she has to be answerable to germany not necessarily the international community. what i think is important is if you have a problem coming through southern europe, it will spread through northern europe. germany thinks it's immune without having change during the course of the year. >> reporter: once again, steven king with richard quest. much of the talk here is about the future of the eurozone. one person said it's much to do with not very much. may not be the general consensus in davos. a breakup of the eurozone is the single most overrated happening in 2012. i'm joined by our rash sha's president in davos. let's cover the concept of why everybody here in davos is so worried about the eurozone. could you have greece default with you not fall out of the euro? isn't that still the likely

probability? >> i think that's very clear, but there's been the sense and a lot of ceos have been saying on the sideline the euro will fall apart. we can't make the kind of bets with all this money that we have sitting around because the worst case scenario in europe could transpire. i think that's a massively overstated risk. politically there's no mechanism for it and no one supports it either in the periphery or in the core never mind all the masses of european bureaucrats. they are going to maintain a commitment to the core of consolidated economy. >> it's interesting because merkel tried to strike two audiences last night speaking to the ceos we can build confidence and credibility. also speaking to germans saying, look, we have to deal with unemployment and we can't spend all of our savings trying to rescue the euro. that's hard to strike a balance. >> first of all the germans are

showing they are willing to compromise however incrementally on some core issues. the willingness to support fiscal union sounds great as a headline term but the reality is they're going to accept much less stripping. the actual fiscal union agreement is going to look a lot softer when everyone's gone through it than what the germans have originally talked about. they've been willing to support the european central bank to buy up a lot of paper. the private sectors haven't been willing to. they haven't made a big story about it, but it's been happening. i'm starting to hear some cautious i wouldn't call it optimism, but an understanding that the worst isn't going to happen on europe. i'm absolutely hearing it here. i'm hearing it after merkel's speech, a bunch of serious european players that understand this is not a disaster. >> reporter: before we let you go we want to know if the rest of the world can grow with the eurozone crisis taking place.

decoupling or not from the emerging markets in the developed world. are they still shackled in your view? are they tied to western europe because it's such a large market and the united states or have they broken free, can drive global growth in the future? >> they're in the process of breaking free. they want to break free but if you look at what chinese growth is still all about, the state has had to step in. it's not undermently rebalanced. so the kinds of things they have to do to grow because of european weakness and even american softness is unsustainable. so in that regard they're still very much shack zblld bremer goes with shackled. >> proven. >> we saw his growth come down. that's ian bremer. we'll take a short break and come back and focus on russia and its view of the euro crisis. certainly is a frightening crime. after all, bank robbers stole $43 million in one year. but identity thieves?

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business today." we continue to cover the world

economic forum in davos, switzerland. it's not just those inside the eurozone or europe that are feeling the effects of the debt crisis. last month russia offered up to 20 billion dollars of loans to help stabilize the eurozone. 40% of russia's total foreign currency reserve is held in euros, you can see why moscow is so ready to cough up to help save the single currency block. writing in the financial times this week the russian president said the euro was a preeminent concern for him in this country. he also said that europe is russia's biggest trading partner. it accounts for half of foreign trade and three-quarters of the foreign direct investments. you can see why russia is just so keen to see this situation sorted out. >> reporter: looks like the bond is stlil between russia and europe, nina. i'm joined in davos by the

director of economics. we talked to him last year. good to see you again. >> good to see you. >> nina laid out the outlook of what the president was talking about here because of the link to the eurozone. do you get the sense here, i know you finished up with a briefing on a panel session about russia, do you get the sense the bottom has been reached? can you walk away, fly back to moscow, and say i think the worst is over? do you report back to the president and say i'm not sure. >> let me start with your figures. we ended up, russian economy, last year with a growth of 4.2% which is not bad. we ended up with the lowest inflation ever in my country of 6%. the lowest gdp around 10%. our economy looks pretty good. we definitely are tied to the eurozone because europe is our main partner in two perspectives, both trade and

investment. as far as our full costs are concerned, i can't be too optimistic as i wish to be. >> what are you saying for 2012? i know the imf had concern about a downgrade. >> our forecast was 3.7%. imf came out with 3.3%. this kind of difference doesn't make much sense. >> the other thing i wanted to talk to you about, how much foreign direct investment is being withheld because i know you don't have clarity of putin 2.0. also the protests that we saw at the end of the year, people woke up and said i didn't realize it. it almost seems like arab spring ii. how would you explain what we see on the ground? >> in russia it's a completely different story. it's the active middle class which has grown greatly. no one predicted that growth. we now have almost 30% of people

which are middle class. >> they're not happy though, you know this? >> they are not happy. >> educated population. >> absolutely. >> what's the problem? what's the disconnect here? >> the problem is that we grow too fast. we grow too fast in economy, democracy. we learn. what is going now, our political system is getting more mature, you know. that's what's going on. just to remind you, comparing to the soviet union 20 years ago, it's a completely different country with almost 0 fdi ratio. now we have you know almost 300 million of fdi. coming up with the figures again, even taking into account this political situation, the fourth quarter shows the growth of fdi of 20% and we ended out this year of 52 billion of fdi which makes us in top seven countries, i believe, if we take the award. >> that's part of the builtout going on here because of the world cup that's going to be

taking place. i want you to weigh in if you can come over here. we had this discussion whether the emerging markets, you're one of the largest emerging markets and growing right now, lower than expected. you admit you're linked to the eurozone. do you still feel you're overly tied to the developed world, g-7 economies or has russian broken free and can trade with china, africa? >> russia's position for centuries has been that we trade with everybody, but of course i believe that every country now is linked to the situation in the united states because it's the main importer of everything in the economy, to the eurozone because it's a very large economy. i would say that we are all tied to all countries. >> globalization has made you still shackled is what you're suggesting here. >> just to remind you, 2 trillion dollar u.s. economy. number 6 based on purchase parity. >> when would you say you're broken free? another 10 years you won't be as

dependent on the united states and europe? >> let's see. >> by then you should be prime minister. we're going to take a short break. we'll be up with more here from "world business today" in davos. thanks. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare,

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welcome back to "world business today." we're live here on cnn. >> it's been quite a week of wild weather for australia with a tropical cyclone, monsoon

rains and major flooding occurring there. let's go over to the international weather center to explain all. >> good morning to you, nina. it's interesting because all of this culminating now on australia day being today across this part of the world. we know back in 1788 on this date across sydney cove when the first landing fleet was made. line of storms. one of the prominent features right there on the corner of your screen off the northwest coast of australia. that's the next tropical see clone in line. this is the time of year you begin to see these storms. tropical cyclone iggy going to approach this weekend. winds close in on 160 kilometers. this is a prominent tourist destination, exmouth.

up to 6,000 people could visit this destination at any time. a lot of precautions being made as that system begins to approach the region. as nina was just telling you, more moisture exiting on to portions of carpentiera. heavy winds, power outages, all associated with this storm system over the next 24 to 48 hours. quickly i want to take you out into europe. good start here to thursday morning if you're a fan of a few rum bls of a few storms. again, on and off showers. the main concern with this going to be gusty conditions. and if you've got travel plans out of dublin, going to see moderate delays. amsterdam will see a few problems with upwards of an hour delay. all the way out to the southeastern portion of europe we do have yet another storm system. heavy snowfall in turkey,

ukraine. we know delays around sofie are going to be 2 plus hours the expected delays on thursday with the storm system exiting the region. >> thank you. good to see you as always. >> we just want to update you on a story out of brazil. at least four people are injured after two buildings collapsed in a busy commercial and financial area of rio. we're told that 11 people are missing. it's not clear what caused the two buildings to collapse. there are reports that an explosion was heard beforehand. authorities aren't ruling out the possibility of a gas leak explosion. you find out more online. just go to cnn.com/international. nina? >> coming up next on "world business today", from lunch appointments to traffic jams, google says its new privacy policy will help people.

they plan to investigate the privacy changes. more ahead. welcome. i understand you need a little help with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. smart move. candy? um-- well, you know, you're in luck. we're experts in this sort of thing, mortgage rigamarole,

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hi. we're in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." within the past hour french police have confirmed to cnn that the founder of the breast implant company p.i.p. has been arrested. jim bittermann joins us live from france with more on this developing story. jim, what's the latest you can tell us? >> reporter: basically that the splis swept in and arrested jooun claude mass, as well as

the president of his company, which was responsible for selling tens of thousands of breast implants worldwide, which have been deemed to be defective. which health authorities have urged people to have removed. and as a consequence he's being investigated by police. they picked up materials from his home searching his home even as we speak. they're trying to find evidence that would be sufficient to bring charges against him. it's in connection with an investigation for involuntary manslaughter and involuntary injury. he's already under investigation. he hasn't been charged yet, but there's a great suspicion that he will be charged soon for fraud because of the fact that he was using defective materials in constructing these breast implants, nina. >> okay. jim bit ter man joining us live from paris with more on news that the man behind that company

has been arrested now in france. many thanks for that, jim. now google's latest privacy changes are attracting a lot of publicity, but the news isn't all positive. france and other protection agencies says they'll investigate the company's plans to share user data across its company. >> reporter: goingle plans to effect another privacy statement. they're going to share information all in one database. you won't have the option of opting out. >> youtube should not turn into you track. >> reporter: representative edward marky is a co-chair of the congressional privacy caucus. he says consumers should have the right to decide if they want information shared among google platforms. >> this is outrageous. googling is like oxygen to kids and teenagers. what google is saying is they are going to take the private

information of kids and teens, provide no privacy protection. >> reporter: google says instead of having more than 60 different privacy policies for google products, there will be only one. the company says it's to better tailor search queries based on your interest. if you put in the word pink the search engine will know if you're talking the color pink or the singer. google on its website saying, quote, our new policy reflects our desire to create a simple product experience that does what you need when you want it to. >> reporter: but aggregating the information would allow for something else. for google to better target ads. >> reporter: google keeps tabs on a lot of your information. if you go to google.com/dashboard. you can pull up your web history. this is a recent search i did for alma whiten. you can look up aps, stores, and they use it to target ads.

>> reporter: ken fisher is with the online magazine. >> it helps to remember that google is the largest advertising agency. they are the most successful advertising company and they are also in an arms race against facebook but against other advertisers as well. this is really about revenues generated from advertising. >> reporter: google declined an on camera interview but they're making if clear it will not sell private information to third parties that, this is just sharing information among google's various sites. but that information could be used for google ads. i asked a spokesperson why not just allow people to opt out? she said it would be too difficult to have two separate privacy policies. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. >> former tech titan apple has overtaken exxonmobile as the world's most valuable publicly traded company. its stock price jumped by more than 6% on wall street on

wednesday pushing the company's total market value or capitalization to just shy of $420 billion. the exact figure is 419. that means it's $1 billion more than the perennial champ is exxon. the share price followed record earnings. another talking point is just as interesting when it comes to apple and we're talking about its bank balance. this is because apple revealed it's sitting on a pot worth just shy of $100 billion. it has a whopping $97.6 billion in the bank. that's a serious pot of cash. and it's of course well in excess of the total market value of a number of the company's rivalries. let's take a look at one of the most successful players in this field, amazon. it's the maker of the kindle ereader. it has a cap of $85.4 billion. if we take a look at dell next down the line, it's worth about a third of that.

also we should mention hewlett-packard is worth about half of what apple actually has just in the bank vaults. then of course there's know key a and the blackberry maker research in motion. r.i.m. has experienced a spectacular fall from grace. you can see it's worth a little bit less than $8.5 billion. >> amazing. these companies are bigger than whole countries. speaking of apple that you mentioned there, be wear of the so called ipad shoulder. researchers say tablet computers can encourage pour posture as she sits up straight. a pairntly using an ipad on your lap means you look down more. that can lead to aching shoulders and neck injuries. so the people who think about these things at the harvard school of public health suggest you prop it up on a table, preferably in an elevated position. is it just me or is that just

turning a tablet computer back into a desktop p.c. sounds awfully familiar. anyway, you have been warned. >> certainly heard of tennis elbow but never ipad shoulder. there you go. another sporting injury for people who like to sit on the couch and read things on their ipad perhaps. he's had two olympic gold medals around his neck, but as he heads towards the london games, does sebastian coe have an albatross around his neck. we'll speak to him live when "world business" returns. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics.

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but not your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®. . welcome back to "world business today." live on cnn. >> let's just recap our top story this thursday for you. investors appear cautiously optimistic after the u.s. federal reserve promises to keep interest rates low through 2014. ben bernanke targeted a 2%

inflation rate during that period in the hope of stimulating growth, but he still warned that progress will be slower than originally forec t.this is how the fed ex pekts things to pan out over the coming years from an imf prediction of just 1.8% growth in 2014 -- sorry, 2011. but 2014's forecast is 4%. that is dependent on increased borrowing when many people still don't qualify. he hasn't written off the possibility of pumping more money into the economy. here's felecia taylor with a look at what the markets made. >> the u.s. federal reserve was front and center wednesday after wrapping up its latest policy meeting. the central bank said short term interest rates are expected to stay at historic lows until at least late 2014. that's longer than previously indicated. stocks did a u turn climbing into positive territory. policy makers gave details on

where they individually see rates going forward. while many agree with keeping them near zero until 2014, half of the fed members think rates should be at 1% or higher once the year is underway. the central bank boosted its jobs outlook but lowered the forecast for economic growth. the dow closed was up .66%. apple shares jumped more than 6% on the day to $446 a share. it was wall street's first chance to react to the company's blockbuster earnings released after the close of trade on tuesday. the gains helped push apple past exxonmobile as the world's most valuable company. another busy day ahead on thursday. investors will receive earnings on durable goods, home sales. we have results from at&t, caterpillar, 3 m and starbucks. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. >> so that's how wall street faired yesterday.

european stocks are fairing today like this. they're still holding on to their positive momentum with the exception of the zur rick smi. the heaviest gains are coming from the cataract 40 which is up .88%. >> nina, here in asia the stock markets have finished mainly higher this thursday. china, taiwan, australia, they have all been closed for national holidays. india also closed. let's have a look at how the leading indices ended the session. one of the thing that was interesting was oil prices moved above $100 a barrel on wednesday. we saw z knock listed in hong kong up. some steam came off the japanese

market. the nikkei 225 pulled back. you've got the likes of japanese electronics maker n.e.c. planning to cut 2,000 jobs. that gives you an idea as to the mood. we had some yen strength. that pulled back some of the major exporters in japan. that explaining that red so far in that downwards arrow for the nikkei. the company employs 113,000 people globally. that coming after the close doesn't set things up very well for the coming session. stay with us here on "world business today." there's going to be much more after the break. 0ñ@ñfñ [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories...

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>> reporter: live from london, hong kong, and davos, switzerla switzerland. this is "world business today" on cnn. >> switzerland may generally get to sit out the worst of the european debt debacle, but it's in the middle of the problem geographically speaking. it's in the heart, of course, on talks on the solution this week. business brains have been gathering as john was just saying in davos and cnn is right there among them. >> of course it is. now it's the age old question and it just won't go away in davos this year. should governments scrimp or should they spend in a time of

economic crisis? cnn's richard quest has found a novel way to figure out whether the leaders are ahead of the curve or behind it. money man nurio rabini offered suggestions that are in keeping. >> reporter: some are ahead of the curve. fiscal austerity at the time there is a recession, the eurozone means they have the totally wrong ways. they're going into a bad area. there is already a recession. instead of recovering the eurozone, we'll go into a deep recession to cause a depression. >> it might not qualify as a recession, but they're showing signs of shrinking. output declined by two-tenths of a percent suggesting as he was saying that austerity is not, it

seems, paying off. cnn's jim bolden talked to the u.k.'s finance minister. he says he believes that more capital spending is required to stimulate britain's economy. he also says that eurozone leaders need to shoulder responsibility. >> my worry is that you're just going to see flat lining for another year. remember, we're still way below in terms ever output what we're producing back in 2007. as i say, when you consider the importance of the eurozone not just to us but to other parts of the world as well, as long as that paralysis of decision making goes on, then the greater the risk that we do go into a recession and that we may stay there for longer than we would otherwise do. >> reporter: there's one respect in which the u.k. is spending big and expecting a substantial return on its investment. that's the summer olympic games in london. i have sebastian coe who did an event this morning. i'm not sure if the jacket is

heavy enough for all the cold. nice to have you. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> reporter: we're quite surprised by looking at the gdp numbers for the fourth quarter because of all of the spending that's taking place around london that the growth is not better. what's your perspective? >> actually, you come out here to trade growth figures. if you look at the 30,000 people who have been directly or indirectly employed on working on the park, you would ask the question in the given economic climate, what would they be doing if they weren't working on that? the 6 billion pounds worth of contracts that have been let, 98% of them to greece businesses, i know the impact that some of that business has had on really hard-pressed communities, often safeguarding jobs, in some very challenged sectors of the economy. >> reporter: for our viewers this is east london, an area that was lacking foreign direct investment. the after games -- >> it is east london. a lot of those business contracts have gone around the

united kingdom. the steel in the olympic stadium is a northwest business. when you procure 27 bridges on the olympic park, that's kept business on the welsh english border in business. the impact has actually been an economic godsend in many challenged communities. >> reporter: at the end of the day after the games what's the tally in terms of the boost to the gdp. do you measure it by london gdp or u.k. gdp to be clear? >> you can measure it across both of those areas. it is generally thought that the contribution to the gdp of london over the cycle of the seven-year period of delivery could be between 5 and 7%. that's a significant figure. of course, when you're making those final adjustments, you have to look at some of the things that are also of legacy value as well. we know that there are projects that are taking place, there are upgrades in transport that probably would not have taken place had we not got the games. >> in fact, that's the

counterargument. was it the right time for london to secure the games because of all the spending and you're going to have a legacy where perhaps it was overspending? this has happened to other big cities. some have benefitted hugely. >> i think that actually if i'm being honest, if we had known where the economy was going in singapore when we were bidding in 2000 and 2005, i think we would recognize this has been an even more important project for the british economy. if you look at the jobs being created, if you look at the jobs we've created in the burrows, this has been a really important life line. >> reporter: nice to have you on the program. sebastian coe. he's running the 2012 london olympics. nina? >> yeah, john, i want to go back to one of the questions that you've been asking a number of your guests on "world business today", also on "global exchange" your show which focuses on the emerging markets. a lot of people have been saying

two or three years ago that the myth of decoupling have been debunked. doesn't seem your guests are buying that one two years later. >> reporter: no. in fact, this is a surprising outcome. having a huge debate in the bunker as we call it here with richard quest about how fast the emerging markets can recover. what i think has changed clearly, nina, is the fact that they git hit for six months, perhaps even a year but the downgrade on the growth, whether it's russia, brazil, south africa is not as severe as it would have been in previous crises. i was surprised if we can take a shot at the board here. we feel very shackled by the eurozone in particular. south african finance minister feels he's very tied to it. bremer suggested the same. russia, the deputy economic investor says the same. latin america feels because of the trade with china we're not overly dependent on the u.s. or north america.

we have great links now with china particularly for natural resources. it's an evolving story. the damage on the downside is much more limited than it would have been in cycles, say, ten years ago. >> so overwhelmingly speaking they tend to think that they're still shackled together but it depentsds where in the world you come from because as you say some people in latin america are saying they have broken free. many thanks for that insight. >> i like it, nina. john's literally gone back to the drawing board. i guess that's what they're having to do in davos, particularly on europe. finally, chinese people have a custom in the lunar luck. they have a wish for prosperity in the year ahead. for one man that saying has an extra special meaning. this jockey and his horse won their first race in 15 starts on wednesday here in hong kong. if that's not enough of an omen, the jockey was born in 1976,

also a year of the dragon like the one that's just begun. might be a safe option for a bet in the future. what a great one. what a great week he's had. that's about it from us. >> i'm nineteen that dos santos in london. we'll see you a little later on for the opening bell on wall street in the second edition of "world business today." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com 6