have done has been a preparation for this. >> thank you very much. best of luck. that's all for us tonight. tomorrow, i talk to the author of a tell all, a controversial new book, the obamas. i'm zain vergee at cnn in london. here are the headlines this hour. iran's ambassador to the united nations is accusing, quote, certain foreign quarters of an ongoing campaign to kill off iran's nuclear scientist. a wave of condemnation has followed the killing of a french journalist in syria and demands are growing for a full investigation. he was among nine people killed in a mortar attack in a southern

city. the reporter was covering a pro-government rally when it came under fire. that was gilles jacquier. nigeriians have been on a strike the past few days protesting a doubling in the fuel. a fuel subsidy was removed. those are the headlines. "world business today" starts now. hello, and a warm welcome to "world business today." i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> aim andrew stevens in hong kong. here are the top stories this thursday, january 12th. japan stands side by side with the u.s. with a pledge to cut its imports of iranian oil. a breakthrough for some, a gimmick to others. can tvmakers really convince us

that 3d is the way to go? we'll hear the hard sell from the las vegas electronics show. and monuments to capitalism or hashi iharbingers of economi what the skyscraper tells us about boom and bust. japan says it's prepared to reduce the april of oil it imports from the republic. it comes a day after he urged china to scale back its own oil imports from iran. japan relies on iran for 10% of its oil, so this is a decision that will not have been taken lightly. kyung lah joins us from cokio. did tim geithner get everything he was after from tokyo? >> reporter: he got pretty much everything he was after. the only thing he didn't get was

an exact time line. we don't know exactly when japan plans on reducing that 10%. what japan has pledged to do, though, is to publicly state they will fall in line with the u.s. request. u.s. secretary tim geithner has been going around through the region trying to get all the allies on board. what the united states wants is renewed pressure on iran, to get tehran to stop its nuclear program through other countries, basically stop buying their foreign oil. here's what secretary geithner and japan's finance minister announced today. >> we are working very closely with europe and japan and with countries around the world to substantially increase the amount of pressure we bring in iran. and we are exploring ways, as i said, to cut off the central bank from the international financial system and to reduce the earnings iran derives from

its oil exports. >> translator: what i told the secretary is that we've already reduced iranian oil imports by 40% in the past five years. nuclear development issue is an issue that the international community cannot overlook. so we very much understand the u.s. action. >> reporter: the finance minister also did add that he didn't have a specific time line. he didn't have exact dates. he also said it would take a little more time for japan to back away from noncrude oil imports out of iran. now, this is a delicate dance for japan as a government. because you may remember, just months ago on march 11th of 2011, there was -- that took out the fukushima daiichi plan. that triggered an energy crisis across the country. the government has a delicate dance. they need to make sure they are falling in line with a very important ally, number one ally, the united states, but at the same time, make sure it has

enough energy, enough electricity, enough oil to keep this country running. andrew? >> as you say, kyung, tim geithner coming to tokyo from beijing where he was carrying the same message. did he meet with any sort of success in beijing? >> reporter: we heard timothy geithner speaking so loudly here in tokyo about this particular step forward with japan is because the exact opposite happened in china. if you look at the readout of what happened out of beijing, you see he didn't get exactly what he wanted. in fact, china said what they import out of iran has nothing to do with tehran's plans for any sort of nuclear program. >> okay. kyung, thanks so much for that. kyung lah joining us live from tokyo. nina? let's have a look at how the european stock markets are faring where i am at the moment. obviously all eyes are focused firmly on two particular euro zone countries at the moment, italy and spain. we have coming up later on

today, spain auctioning up the 5 billion euros worth of bonds due in 2015-2016 and italy selling back 12 billion euros worth of its own bills. we have the ecb deciding on interest rates today. it's widely expected to keep them on hold at 1.0%, pausing for the moment in terms of the interest rate policy for the euro zone. we have a couple of corporate earnings that are affecting things, particularly on this market here. the ftse 100. it's currently down by about 0.16%. we've had disappointing figures coming out of tesco. the country's largest supermarket chain. and also major change at rbs. that could involve the loss of 1,300 jobs. we have the likes of the cac 40 and the zurich smi up. >> pretty much green -- red arrows, excuse me, across the

zone here today. the trading has been quite light, particularly in the china-related indexes because we are coming up to chinese new year and this does tend to be a quiet time between the christmas break and the chinese new year. the main story pretty much across the region, the one everybody has been focusing on, not just today but pretty much for the last 12 months, inflation. we have the december index out. inflation is easing down from 4.2% to 4.1% in december. that give an initial boost to the markets pretty much across the region. that soon faded. the attention turning to europe. shanghai, for example, down for the second day in a row by 0.4%. hong kong down by about a third or so of 1%. the reason for the disappointment as well with the inflation is that it was a little bit higher than analysts had been hoping. analysts had been looking for 4% even. they got 4.1%. inflation is now down for the fifth straight month. it is now at its lowest level in

15 months. growth, the economic growth picture in china has been slowing and that has been dragging inflation down with it. the expectation now has switched firmly to what the government will do to if it needs to at the moment get the economy, the broader economy going. while i'm talking about that i'll show you the december number for inflation. you'll see that there. the issue now here, nina subwith china comfortable with the level of inflation at around about its target? its target is 4%. or can we expect to see them make doubly sure that inflation is actually dead and buried before they start to turn their attention to boosting growth? this is going to be the balance that chinese policymakers are going to be wrestling with pretty much throughout 2012. most money says at the moment at least growth will come first. but certainly inflation has the potential to be an enormous issue in china. authorities will be careful about how they deal with that. >> they sure will. it's something that, of course, excuse me, andrew, they've been keeping an eye an as you were

saying for a number of years now. that chart illustrates it. weaver had a look at the trading picture where andrew is in asia, we've had a look at the trading picture here, in europe where the markets kicked off about an hour or so. trading begins on wall street a little over five hours from now. let's have a look at the how the u.s. futures markets indicate the opening could go. it's difficult to get a grasp on what could happen when those markets start trading later on today. behind me, a lot of the markets basically flat to mixed. what we have is the nasdaq futures showing an upward tick at the moment but only by 0.05%. the other markets down by 0.1%. when it comes to the futures, anything could happen in the next five hours. andrew? >> indeed. still to come on "world business today," politics, private equity and pointing the finger. u.s. republican presidential candidates take their fight to south carolina. mitt romney's rivals keep his business background in the cr s

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a misty and polluted day here in hong kong. welcome back. live from hong kong in london, you're watching "world business today." u.s. republican presidential candidates are campaigning hard in the state of south carolina, ahead of the next primary to come up. mitt romney hopes that he can maintain his political momentum there after consecutive wins in iowa and new hampshire. he's already won an endorsement from south carolina governor nikki haley. she spoke wednesday and voiced concerns over the increasingly vicious attacks on the campaign trail. >> certainly the gloves are off. romney has been under a pretty

sustained attack for his work at a private equity firm called bain capital, a firm he co-founded. he says it helped create more than 100,000 jobs. romney's critics say that's not the case. christine romans took a look at those competing claims. >> reporter: what is private equity? it's rich investors like pension funds, university endowments, wealthy individuals pooling their money together to invest in companies, in new technology, anything that can make them money. often they zero in on failing companies. the private money comes in, restructures, sells divisions, closes failing parts of the company and reaps benefits from the good parts. mitt romney says he has created 100,000 jobs this way. these are investments that bain made in staples, dominos. he's counting jobs even after bain was out of the picture. it's pretty much impossible to know how many jobs bain and

romney created or lost in those private equity investments from 1984 to 1999. here's why. bain does not record payroll numbers. it's private equity. once a company is no longer privately listed, the books are close. reuters profiled a steel mill in kansas city that bain invested in that eventually failed with devastating job loss. newt gingrich is using the word looting to describe his business history and a superpack has a new 28-minute video called "king of bain." >> mitt romney, the ceo of bain capital. his mission, to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. >> mitt romney and them guys don't believe who i am. >> he's for small business? no, he isn't. he's not. >> reporter: it's resonating. another candidate, texas

governor rick perry says there's something wrong with getting rich off failure. what's not in dispute is that investors got rich. a "wall street journal" article says ten of the deals produced huge gains for bain investors. private equity is about making investment and making profit. it is the dna of american capitalism. but this is a debate among republicans, the pro-business party in the u.s. is curious. much of the debate in this country has been very negative about private equity. consider this, most private equity firms buy and grow businesses. a few examples, actually bain examples, dunkin' donuts has had a resurgence after private equity came in. the weather channel is part owned by bain. there are hundreds, if not thousands of examples of companies operating today that are backed by private equity. christine romans, cnn, atlanta. >> fascinating debate in the

heart of the republican primaries, really interesting. second place, too, romney in south carolina and the man leading many of the attacks, the former republican speaker of the house, newt gingrich. he's certainly pulling out all the stops trying to keep his presidential campaign alive. he spoke to piers morgan, explained why he would make a stronger presidential nominee than mitt romney. >> the last thing you want is to nominate somebody who collapses in september who can't answer the questions. you'd better answer -- people want to attack me for my past, that's fine. i either will answer it and be ready to be the nominee or i won't. romney ought to have to meet the same test. >> he's been very scathing through these superpacks and also himself, pretty personal, it got pretty nasty pretty quickly. only now are you responding. what do you think of him personally as a man. >> i don't. >> you have no view?

>> i have no view. >> do you like him. >> he's a competitor. i think he was unnecessarily negative and knows that some of the things he ran were not true but that's his decision. that's how he wants to play the game. >> and you can catch that full interview with newt gingrich coming up a little later on "piers morgan tonight," a little over an hour and a half from now. still ahead on the show, the biggest human migration on earth is under way. we'll tell you how many planes, trains and automobiles it takes to transport millions of chinese over the lunar new year break. you're watching "world business today." milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromise on taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance. morning because my back hurt so bad. the sleep number bed conforms to you. i wake up in the morning with no back pain.

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somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. tim geithner swings through asia trying to convince the allies to cut back on ironian oil, the price of crude continues to rise. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live here on cnn. as more trouble for foxconn in china. they manufacture parts for apple and microsoft as well as other high technology firms has confirm confirmed. they employ more than 1 million people. it was rocked by a spate of suicide at a plant in the

shenzhen. foxconn did say 150 workers protested after a decision to transfer them to a different production line. several internet sites carried a conflicting report that up to 300 staff threatened a mass suicide. cnn has so far been unable to confirm that report. but microsoft has said that it is investigating this news. okay. staying in china but on a slightly more upbeat note, when the world's most populous country gets set for its most popular festival, the world's biggest annual migration begins. the lunar new year holiday's big business for china's transport operators, between those traveling home for the holiday and those taking vacations elsewhere, the government reckons that up to 3.1 billion journeys will be made. now, this figure covers the entire peak travel period from january 8th to february 16th.

even though china may now be the world's biggest carmaker, public transport services will certainly be feeling the pressure, won't they, nina? >> they certainly will, andrew. nearly 17 million cars were bought in china just last year. despite that particular boom in the auto market, far more people, it seems, will be taking the bus. i dread to think what kind of scrums we'll see to get a seat there. >> you hit the nail on the head there, scrums. my experience is trying to catch a bus when a lot of other people are trying to catch it is anything but orderly. certainly bus operators will have their work cut out for them over the next five weeks or so. there's been a report come out from the bank hsbc. it says that no fewer than 840,000 vehicles will be put to work, making 2.6 million departures daily. that is a lot of movement. that's just the buses. now compare that with the

railway system. china's railway network is growing rapidly as we've been reporting that only 235 million people will be traveling by rail over the holidays. just over 4,000 trains will be departing each day. now, that's more than three times, though, as many as ships. ships will take about 44 million people to their holiday destination. but think about that, boats, 44 million people traveling on boats. and finally, those who prefer to travel by air. this is the lowest number of them all, 35 million people will travel by plane over the new year period. hsbc says it will take an extra 14,000 scheduled flights to get those 35 million people to where they want to go. that equates to about 350 extra services every single day across china. spare a thought for air traffic control over the lunar new year period. nina? >> we certainly will. as with china and every story that's china related, the figures are enormous and often

magnified by the sheer scale of people moving about. whether you're moving about in china or elsewhere, it's time to get you updated with the weather for you business travelers out there. we are joined live from the cnn international weather center. how's it looking? >> not too bad. you were speaking of china. of course talking about the lunar new year and going on into the middle of february. this weather pattern is what you want to see, quiet conditions over much of china, at least for the next four, five days. you take a look, high pressure in place. anytime you see big blue, high pressure and it's i dominant feature on the maps there, it's meaning that the air is sinking above you. once you do that, you're devoiding the air of any moisture. to the north, going to remain dry, although it's going to remain cold. that's seasonal for this time of year. into south, say taipei, working on into hong kong. scattered showers going to be a possibility and gloomy

conditions a possibility as well. but you take a look. really besides portions of the eastern coast of the philippines there, generally quiet conditions going to persist. with that said, the temperatures again on cooler side, beijing at this hour, it's zero on freezing mark there. hong kong currently at 16 and taipei at 17. again, this is actually a few degrees below average for them for this time of year as well. take a look, if your travel plans are taking you to beijing the next couple of days, this is the sort of weather pattern you want to see when the lunar travel new year begins, it's peak over the next few weeks. it bottoms out to 0 there by the time saturday rolls around. over in hong kong, cloudy conditions, temperatures should be in the teens. and very little variance in the temperatures as well as we have cloud cover in place here. 15 in the morning hours to 17 in the afternoon hours. and in seoul, not too bad. again, on the cold side but

we'll take the sunshine. we've seen plenty of travel disruptions here, of course, with snow showers. we've seen it across portions of asia when it comes to train travel. it looks like the weather pattern will remain quiet. stick around, "world business today" coming back momentarily. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in.

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i'm nina dos santos in london. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome back to "world business today." >> let's take another look at the european stock market action 19 minutes into today's trading session. what we have is everybody's eyes

firmly fixed on sales of spanish and italian debt. we have the ecb deciding on rates today. not expected to move. expected to keep them on hole at 1%. still, we have plenty of news moving the ftse 100. in particular, rbs. this is royal bank of scotland, 83% earned by the uk taxpayer has announced an additional 3,500 job cuts as part of a re-organization at its investment banking. on the other hand, countering that kind of news. that has been lifting rbs's stock price up by 7%. we have disappointing sales figures coming out of tesco. that has the uk's largest grocery store down by 1 .4% at the moment. >> getting retail numbers out of the u.s. later today. that will be an interesting comparison. here in asia, a quiet day. there was one big story rolling through the markets a little early this day and causing volatility early, too. china inflation numbers for december. the consumer price index down

for the fifth month running, the good news. it's now 4.1% after a 4.2% showing in november. the bad news is, it's not as low as analysts had been hoping. this initial number came out, particularly the chinese markets went up into reaction. a little bit of number crunching, the markets went down. hong kong down by 0.3%. the trend remains in the right direction. inflation coming down, giving policymakers in beijing ever more room to boost growth if they feel they need to. in india, the country's airlines are continuing to soar for a second straight session. kingfisher and spicejet rising sharply after a government panel agreed to let foreign airlines buy up to a 49% stake in local carriers. you see there, kingfisher, not surprising. it's been under a huge amount of

pressure. some reports saying it's getting close to declaring bankruptcy or even bankruptcy protection. so that could be a god send for king fisher, because this is like the first time that foreign airlines will be allowed to invest in the debt-laden airlines in india which would, of course, provide them with a much-needed life line, particularly kingfisher. nina? trading begins on wall street in a little under five hours from now. let's take another look at how the u.s. stock market may well open, at least according to the futures. it's still a mixed picture as we're showing you, about 30 odd minutes ago. nasdaq flat to slightly up and the other two markets down by about 0.1%. u.s. president barack obama is asking american companies to come home and turn outsourcing into insourcing. he met a group of ceo's at the white house on wednesday to talk about bringing their offices back to the u.s. in attendance were leaders from

companies such as ford, dupont and intel. mr. obama told them it was time to get momentum going in the u.s. jobs market. >> i don't want america to be a nation that's primarily known for financial speculation and racking up debt buying stuff from other nations. i want us to be known for making and selling products all over the world stamped with three proud words, made in america. and we can make that happen. >> it's been falling over the past couple of months but it's uncomfortably high standing at 8.5%. as "the new york times" has been recently pointing out, it's been more than half a century since he's in american president has been able to win a second term in office with the unemployment rate above 7.2%. let's get a quick recap. the number of jobs in the united states peaked back in january of 2008. when mr. obama actually took office a year later, we saw 4.4

million already gone as the financial crisis hit the economy head on. and then by february 2010, right here on this dot on the chart, we saw another million being lost as the economic pain continued. the president, of course, won't get all those jobs back during his current term. that's going to be a tough challenge. the question is whether he can actually get back to where he started from back in this particular chart. he's made up about 2.7 million so far. but he needs another 1.6 million in the next 11 months to actually break even to the kind of level that we saw when he took office, andrew. >> it's interesting equation there. certainly the trend is working in mr. obama's favor at the moment. employment has been coming down quite steadily. will it get down to under that 7.2% level by november? it's been touch and go. one u.s. industry that's in search of more skilled workers is the tech sector. we caught up with intel's ceo at

this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas and asked him about some of the nationwide tech initiatives that are now in the works. >> we've had three meetings with the president. we have another one next week, actually. probably our last meeting. we've completed our report out. we broke up into a number of subcommittees. i've headed up the one on high-tech education with the near-term goal of graduating 10,000 more engineers per year into the united states. because there's a critical shortage of trained engineering talent with the right to work in this country. so we're really focusing on the college system and the attrition rate in the engineering schools to get a higher graduation rate near term. other people are working on things like the regulatory environment or taxes or permitting for new factories and those kinds of things. in general fb if y, if you look report which is public, there's good ideas there.

it's just up to the administration and the congress to move on them. >> you can see that full interview on the later edition of "wbt." 10:00 p.m. here in hong kong, 3:00 p.m. in central europe. tune in to see the interview of paul otellini. 3d's time really it seems has never really come at least in the television space. some have been blaming the glasses, others say it's a lack of content and available. we have a report now from the las vegas consumer electronics show. he's been taking a look at how tvmakers want to get 3-d tv into your living room. >> reporter: we're at the consumer electronics show, one of the big things that's happening at 3-d televisions, next generation 3-d tv with glasses, without the glasses, all the hype is about 3-d tv. we've got it right here.

so i'm seeing a couple things, one is glasses-free tv, toshiba is selling this. it gives you the 3-d effect pretty well from what i've seen in early samples. you have to sit kind of in the right place. they say they have nine seating positions that you can sit in. that's pretty good. a middle ground that i like is what they call passive 3-d. very cheap glasses, same ones you' you've seen in the movie theater. they work on all passive tvs. they're inexpensive so they can make them in lots of different styles. the family can buy the style they like. it's not like you have to wear one style that are expensive and complicated. those are called active shutter glasses. pass sieve something to look for. the passive tvs are finally coming into their own at this show. that's an important trend but i'm still not a huge 3-d tv guy.

the glasses are still there, there's not enough to watch and how often does 3-d make the show better. >> reporter: it's evolving over time. we still have glasses but there's also passive 3-d television that are more like glasses you're used to wearing in a movie theater. there are manufacturers that are making glass-less 3-d tvs. clearly, a 3-d television is foot going away. more content is being provided for these televisions as well as monitors as well as consumer and cameras you can shoot in 3-d yourself. >> wow, perhaps i'd like to suggest, andrew, that mario armstrong and their guests take their glasses off. as you saw there, there's plenty on offer from 3-d tv makers.

the question is will the consume irbe any of it, whether they wear glasses or not? >> exactly. the other interesting thing is here, we're about to go hd from what i hear from our engineers. that could be interesting. seeing us properly for the first time, that could be scary, at least for some of us, nina. just ahead on "world business today," we'll be delving into what 2012 has in store. it's been a tough 2011. robin bugh from the economists unit will be here to tell us about that. it's not a sealy, a simmons, or a serta... ask me about my tempur-pedic. ask me how i can finally sleep all night. ask me how great my back feels every morning. did you know there's a tempur-pedic for every body? tempur-pedic beds now come insoft...firm...and everything in-between... ask me how i don't wake up anymore when he comes to bed... these are real tempur-pedic owners...ask

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as 2012 gets under way, uncertainty continues to be the word on everyone's lips. europe could be heading for recession and china is battling its own economic head winds. we saw bailouts, savage spending cuts and riots. what's in store for 2012? robin bugh is the editorial director of the economist

intelligence unit. he joins us here in hong kong. happy new year to you. >> you, too. >> a story ran, nina was saying it's been half a century since a u.s. president was elected with unemployment over 7.2%. do you think it will be at 7.2% in november for barack obama? >> it's difficult to see that happening. growth in the u.s. is a bit better than we might have expected. we imagine the u.s. will slow over the next six months. the republican field a decent candidate, obama will really struggle. if unemployment drops below 8%, obama has a chance. >> you would call romney a decent candidate? >> well, i think in erm its of the general election he has a decent chance. he's probably the only one at the moment. >> let's move on. i want to talk to you about

global economic cycles if you'd like. in 2011 did you see the economic cycle hit bottom, in europe and in asia, are they still to hit bottom? >> europe and asia was still to hit bottom. though i would say for the u.s. we could be at the start of yet another sike. depending on what happens in europe, it will dictate what happens in europe as well. it will be disastrous or it will be modestly bad. it's not going to be good under any situation. >> most people say modestly bad. >> most people are saying the euro zone will not break up. we're sighing that, too. europe will contract, you mentioned there might be a recession. they're probably already in recession. we think it will shrink about 1.5% this year. it's not great, it's not awful. if the euro zone breaks up it will be a disaster. >> that's a whole new ball game. the impact, let's assume europe muddles through. what is the impact on the u.s. and asia inge go to be?

if you look at the u.s. over the last quarter of 2011, the numbers look pretty good. the euro zone was going deep into is kroo is. will there be a decoupling? >> that's not helpful for the rest of the world. you're seeing that come out in the chinese trade data and lots of questions about what happened in america. actually it's not a disaster. the u.s. can grow nicely with that modest recession. asia will continue to reasonably well. it's not a disaster. u.s. has a very large domestic economy. that can keep moving forward in the absence of a really strong export story. we can imagine the u.s. will do reasonably well. asia should do quite well as well. it's not skin the wiconsistent but it's not disastrous as well. >> everything points to an unremarkable year. >> yes. there will be some concern about

china, i'm sure. we'll read lots and lots of stories of hard versus soft landing. all eyes will be on europe. >> i want to ask you two commodities, gold and oil. golds away big story last year. will continue to be. i read gold is going to come off in 2012. >> gold will come off to the extent that people will start to get a better confidence. gold is clearly a hedge against the risk that we see a major financial crisis prompted by serious default of the euro zone. >> if everyone gets confident, the muddling through is really what's going to happen. i think gold will come off. i don't think there will that be degree of confidence until we get at least to the second half. there's lots and lots of risk points where people will remain nervous. gold will probably come off but only in the second half of the year. oil, you can imagine with slower growth, oil will come off.

what's going on in iran, is pushing in the other direction. that will prevent energy prices coming off as much as you might have expected given the weakness of europe. >> we'll have to leave it there. >> thank you. >> always great having you come in. >> thank you. here's another question you should have put to him there, what do skyscrapers and stock markets have in common? we'll tell you next and why it could suggest an impending economic wipeout for places like china and india. tired eye relief

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gold seems to be regaining its shine as you can see, up 5.80. welcome back, you're watching "world business today" on cnn. the bigger they are, the harder they fall. it's a well-known line. it's also the theory behind the skyscraper index, which tracks a link between construction booms in tall buildings and economic busts over the past 140 years. and the latest skyscraper index report from barclays capital suggests that china and india may be due for a tumble sometime in the next five years. ramy inocencio has been looking through the numbers and checking out the buildings. ramy?

>> andrew, thanks. when you think of skyscrapers, you think of the grandeur of it all and national pride. this new barclays capital report says that a skyscraper boom heralds economic doom. barclays says china is the world's biggest bubble builder. take a look at this. this is the skyline of shanghai. of course it's china's economic hub with its iconic pearl tv tower. the country already has half of the world's existing buildings higher than 240 meters, in total 75 of them but china is not stopping there. it's going to nearly double that number in six years. that's because it's got more than half of the 124 skyscrapers currently under construction. now as for india, it only has two sky scrapers which are in mumbai. that's going to change in the next five years. 14 more are on their way. this is the construction site of the tower of india. once completed, it will look like this.

it will be the world's second tallest tower. now, andrew lawrence, the man behind the skyscraper index. he's director of property research at barclays capital here in hong kong. he explains the index like this, skyscraper construction is characterized by bursts of intense activity with easy-to-get credit, rising land prices and excessive optimism. by the time those skyscrapers are finished with be this happens, the economy has slipped into recession. with china and india pushing skyward, economists suggest their economies may come crashing back to the grounded. >> it will always lag the cycle because it takes so long to build them out. speaking of that historical perspective, how close is the correlation between the booms and the busts? >> right, andrew. it's pretty convincing when you take a look at the boom and bust cycle around world. first of all let's head back to 1930 first. this is new york's empire state building. it became the world's tallest building when it opened. that was just as the great

depression was hitting the united states. that lasted for more than ten years. closer to the present day, the asian financial crisis of 1997 hit just before this building was opened. it's the tower in kuala lumpur, malaysia. now, this right here, this is currently the world's tallest building. it is the burj khalifa in dubai. this coincides with dubai nearly going broke and it heralded the great global recession that of course we are now trying to dig our way out of. as china and india build higher and higher, there's reason to be a bit more leery of an economic output. >> fascinating stuff, ramy. we'll cross our fingers that they may be wrong for once. planning applications, people should be warned, shouldn't they, by barclays

capital, perhaps, the economic consequences of growing inclinician for some of these tall buildings given that report. in recent years we've seen things brutal in the book industry. we saw borders going bankrupt, barnes & noble had to attempt to modernize. since that company's stock has slump eed almost 75%. and now the uk chain waterstones. here's the answer. fans of brand will notice something missing between the e and the s in the top left-hand corner. it will boost the profile and web presence and reflect its modern identity. language purists now argue if there's one thing a book shop really can't afford to do is mess with punctuation. literally speaking, andrew, this could be a war of words and when i say that, i do not add an

apostrophe between the d and the s. >> i'm sure there's plenty of outrage amongst that community. there's a whole group called the apostrophe appreciation society that's gotten hot and heavy about this. that's a fascinating part of that story. that's it for us for this edition at least, i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. see you again for the second edition of "world business today" in about four hours time.