economic fundamentals look better than japan and the euro zone here's another example the japanese are having version of quantitative easing they're expanding the bank of japan is expanding its balance sheet it's not just by the risk free asset like japanese government bonds but the bank of japan is also buying things like equities and the corporate bonds and look at the e.c.b. as doing the e.c.b. balance sheet has exploded that even though the federal reserve goes quickly in the early part of the crisis the federal reserve balance sheet is stabilized the european central bank's balance sheet has exploded and what do they buy they're buying with things that nobody else wants to buy for example greek bonds or italian bonds and so i think that the kind of assets the federal reserve bought on its balance sheet as you point out it's a if it's grown it's by risk free or relatively rich it will be regarded as discrete assets u.s. governed by the europeans are buying sovereign bonds that nobody else wants to buy and the japanese are buying even riskier assets ok so it sounds like to keep the clean shirt analogy which you didn't love but it sounds like you

gains are limited because the bank of japan downgraded the growth forecast for the current fiscal year ending in march. 4% growth. the japanese central bank expects a contraction of the growths for fiscal 2012, revised down to 2% from 2.2%. japanese interest rates remain unchanged. but the nikkei, i believe it -- still ahead on "world business today," pressure is mounting on iran as europe slaps tough new sanctions on the mainstay of the country's economy and markets spike in oil prices. that's next on wbt. r well somewhere along the way, emily wentight on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. >>> this is brent crude down despite threats from iran to close the straits of hormuz. $110 a barrel. with the u.s. dollar, did push the price higher on monday. we're seeing a little strength returning to the dollar. that's putting that mild downward pressure

the bank of japan has decided to keep itsz monetary policy unchanged. it wants to see the effect of the current easing credit measures on the nation's economy. the central bank made the decision at a two-day policy board meeting and theed on tuesday. the boj says japan's economic recovery has stalled because of a global slow down stemming from europe's debt crisis. it cites the yen's strength against the dollar and the euro. looking ahead the bank says the country's economy will return to a moderate recovery in the first half of 2012 in april. this will be due to economic growth in emerging nations and an increase in the demand for reconstruction from the disaster in march last year. the boj downgraded the economic growth forecast for fiscal 2011 from 0.3% to minus 0.4%. for fiscal 2012 from 2.2% to 2%. boj government told reporters that the sovereign debt crisis in europe poses the biggest risk to the economy. >> translator: if the situation worsens we might see a further contraction in the global financial markets. that will have a huge impact in and o

of course the u.s. government the federal reserve the european central bank bank of japan i mean all the central banks of the world all the big banks that are connected to them and the big international corporations that want to get cozy with the government so probably davis is more powerful but the people of puerto electorate do a huge amount of harm to everything they promote again makes poor people poor or makes middle class people poor it may have but it helps the the super rich who are connected to government even though they pretend to be concerned about. the poor and they're not they hurt the poor and the people and i was of course couldn't care less either although they may use that rhetoric and all their talk and devils about a new form of capitalism we don't actually have capitalism right now we have state capitalism guided capitalism corporate statism again a form of fascism that's that that is the that is the current economic system and most of the world today is one or another form of fascism and of course both of these both of these groups are for turning up the police state they want to co

dollar this year, and its lowest since halloween-- the latest time the bank of japan sold yen, hoping to drive down its currency. but since then, buyers have moved back in, driving up the value of the yen. back to u.s. stocks, drug maker amylin saw strong volume and a big rally thanks to the f.d.a., giving the okay to its diabetes drug. shares shot up 17.5%. volume was 10 times normal. the drug was rejected twice by regulators wanting more info on the side effects to the heart. the medicine is injected once a week to treat type-2 diabetes. "u.s.a. today" owner gannet shed almost 7% after reporting another quarterly drop in advertising revenue for its newspapers and t.v. stations. the publisher said retailers recorded the biggest drop in ad spending between thanksgiving and christmas. share price slid 7%. we mentioned the big corporate buyouts earlier in the program. we had a couple of big companies announce asset sales. exxon mobil shed a fraction after selling its japanese subsidiary for almost $4 billion, giving up control of a refiner. u.s. steel fell almost 4% after agreeing to se

present inflationary conditions into this and we intend to work in close quarter coronation with the bank of japan will also promote high-level economic coordination such as to the realization of the free trade area of the asia-pacific program and also through accelerated implementation of new growth strategy. through these and other concrete measures we are determined to promote and realize revival of japan's economy. in addition to these three overarching themes there are a number of issues which, despite continuing discussions with the opposition parties last year, remain unresolved. the first of these is reform of the postal savings system. such reforms are important to meaningful in themselves but it is also hope they can provide a source of non-tax revenues to be used for the financing of reconstruction. the next is reform of the political system, in particular reducing the number of dioceses. further we want to pursue administrative reform, including reducing the personnel costs of public sector employees. this is another area where we engaged in discussions with the opposition party but we

japan's cooperation on economic sanctions against iran. the u.s. is trying to block iran's oil trade by barring transactions between its central bank and foreign financial institutions. >> translator: japan depends on iran for 10% of its crude oil imports. but we will strive to cut imports as soon as possible. >> azumi said japan's trade with iran is not limited to oil imports. he called for a mother tomorrow on sanctions against other economic deals. treasury secretary timothy geithner says the iran sanctions must be put in place as soon as possible. but to make them effective he needs to get another country on side. geithner spoke with nhk world about the challenges he faces. >> how are you? >> hi, mr. speaker. >> u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner is welcoming japan's cooperation on iran sanctions. >> what were your thoughts on that? >> let me say that my sense is japan is going to be with us and is going to work with us and with europe to try to make sure that we're bringing additional pressure on iran for the obvious reason we have a huge interest together. now we have a range of operational questions we have to work through, we're starting to work through. we're going to send a team next week to consul

heritage friend level, coalition of asian-american government employees, japan town merchant associations of san francisco, ktsf television, sugar bowl bakery, and union bank. and media partners, abc-7, a.m. 1400, asian week.com, comcast, and choir.net, ktsf tv, s.f. gov tv, the examiner and world channel. thank you so much for your support. [applause] and if you're -- this celebration also received the support of so many individuals as well as professional small businesses and community organizations. you'll see their names listed on the screen and in the program book. and on the website. a.p.a. -- apasf.org. those attending this celebration for the past few years, we have been treated to so many fabulous and unique ethnic, cultural performances. this year, certainly no exception. the northern california cherry blossom festival just celebrated its 44th year. during which the 2011 queen and court was selected. so tonight, the 2011 court will perform their opening number from the queens program, choreographed by mickey nowitzki and music by shina ringo entitled ringo uotota. please welcome the 2011 northern california cherry blossom court. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪

in the broader money supply what's your take on that because that's kind of what we saw in japan right the japanese central bank tried to inflate the economy but it really just created zombie banks that were living off life support and they succeeded in preventing a healthy deflation which would have been beneficial for the japanese economy we're not going to be quite so fortunate we're in much worse shape than japan was when their central bank embark on this foolish policy and their government but inflation is that increase in the money supply when americans feel the effect of inflation when they go to the supermarket or the gas station that's what happens as a result of inflation prices are going up at. prices are going up for american consumers unfortunately they're going to go up a lot faster in the years ahead i mean this is the consequence of the fed trying to inflate the housing market to try to prop up housing prices it's not working but what is happening is the price of everything else is going up instead but quickly things that americans have to buy on a daily basis of food and energy. and it's not ju

japan's help in trying to stop exports of iranian oil. their boycott penalizes foreign financial institutions that deal with iran's central bank. the japanese government will look into how to cooperate with its ally, but government leaders want to avoid any adverse impact to the economy. they say international cooperation is necessary to stop at the ran's nuclear program. japan gets about 10% of its crude oil from iran. authorities believe it is possible to secure oil from other exporters. still, government leaders say it could cause oil prices to surge and place a heavy burden on japanese corporations and households. they plan to study ways to reduce oil imports from iran, and request the u.s. allow exceptions for japan under certain conditions. members of the european union are divided when to impose an oil embargo. they, too, want to avoid negative impacts. they are trying to ban imports of crude oil and pet row chemical products to toughen economic sanctions against iran. they hope to reach an agreement in a meeting of foreign ministers on january 23rd. eu sources say britain and france are requesting immediate start to the

pressure because of the level of yen ahead of the meeting of the european essential bank also dragging on sentiment the data as i said that japan's current account surplus follow up than expected and now it's less than one hour ahead of the opening bell here in moscow russia bourses kotler a wednesday falling negative news from the brewers yes lost over one percent while the my sex vanished almost point eight percent in the red eagle. from right side and capitals as the markets close to the bottom right in the fall stall for the year. overall we are quite positive from the second on the first quarter and on the first half of the year at all i would say that these goes a bit contrary to the overall consensus on the market which suggests that first half will be it will be more or less difficult while the second one will be more positive we think first and we think that situation with the european debt would not affect that much on deck which is market is did last year so we see some improvements and we think that we're close to the bottom of this it's a middle of the crises itself but of the influence on the equities market because

japan's help in trying to stop exports of iranian oil. their boycott penalizes foreign financial institutions that deal with iran's central bank. it looks at how to cooperate with its ally. but they want to avoid any adverse impact to the economy. they say international cooperation is necessary to stop iran's nuclear program. japan currently gets about 10% of its crude oil from iran. but authorities believe it's possle to secure oil from other exporters. still, government leaders say the ban could cause oil prices to surge in the short term and place a heavy burden on japanese corporations and households. they plan to study ways to reduce oil imports from iran and request that the u allow exceptions for japan under certain conditions. members of the european union are divided over when to impose an oil embargo of their own. they, too, want to avoid any negative impacts. eu nations are trying to ban imports of crude oil and toughen economic sanctions against iran. they're hoping to reach an agreement in a meeting of foreign ministers on january 23rd. eu source say britain and france are requesting an immediate start to the embar

of those as well. also, we're going to get earnings from key japanese companies such as sony and panasonic, nintendo, and also kddi, which along with soft bank, sells the iphone here in japan. now, let's have a look at the currency levels as well. we've seen the euro gaining for most of this week, currently trading around the upper 101 levels, 101.91 to 96, but look at the dollar yen as well following the fed's decision to keep interest rates very low, we did see buying of the yen, which pushed the dollar lower. as you can see there on your screens, ai? >> focusing on the u.s. economy, what else is expected for the remainder of the week? >> we have key weekly jobless claims numbers later today and as you were mentioning there, also tomorrow will be a key focus on fourth quarter gdp to see how fast the u.s. economy was growing late last year. >> still some key events for investors to watch out for. >> definitely, a lot of the asian indexes closed this week for chinese lunar new year, a lot of market direction has been coming from the u.s., not only from economic data but also from earnings. for now, the nikkei and topix slightly mixed this thursday morning. back to you. >>

of japan's biggest finance groups is taking to the skieses. sumitomo midst suey financial group is said to acquire the aircraft leasing wing of the struggling royal bank of scotland. the price will be over $6.5 billion. sources say sumitomo mitsui and sumitomo corporation outbid multiple financial organizations. rbs is in the process of selling its assets to boost its financial house as europe's debt problems continue to dampen its business environment. meanwhile sumitomo mitsui is boosting its overseas operations to boost sluggish demand for loans. the latest move is seen as a way to expand its business with foreign airline companies. >>> let's get you a recap now of the latest market figures. >> i'll be back with more business news next hour. back to catherine now. >> thanks very much, ai. fukushima prefecture has pledged to help relocate residents of a new apartment bloc built from a contaminated concrete. radioactive cesium was detected in the building in nihonmatsu city. some readings up to to higher than atmospheric level ps tp gravel used for the concrete came from a query in namie near the stricken fukushima plant. the town was evacuated in ap

on the pressure because of the low yen ahead of the meeting of the european central bank also dragging on sentiment does a show that japan's current account surplus fell lower than expected and here in moscow the market is softer and the black yes is around point two percent while the my sex is just a notch level let's have a look at some individual on the mises does monopoly gas problem is haul five percent up the company says it will spend five point seven billion dollars on such an index financials are also on the rise b.c.b. find his point seven percent in. the block. is among the many of the second thoughts and of course around all this on our lives cause increases in the russian camp. to fifty percent in the first quarter of this year a girl called saw from right facing capital expects is so to grow in the first half of this year. overall we are quite positive from the second on the first quarter and on the first half of the year at all i would say these goals if you to contribute to the overall consensus on the market which suggests that the first half will be it will be more or less difficult while the second one w

you know the central bank of brazil is holding now because china's still in china still holding on because japan is still old enough there there is no alternative on a scale large enough to accommodate a. flight from the dollar. and still ahead more from my interview with bestselling author and producer addison wiggin where i ask him how long he thinks it will take for this credit bubble to finally be flayed and what he thinks the american economy will look like when it does but first your closing market numbers. show is that so much given to each musician. in the market egypt's unfinished business a year on the revolution that you have to do spirit appears to have stalled the military rulers who replacement. with. this month by the particles that make up the fabric of the universe find what you're looking for in the deep siberian forest fire with the help of lasers in fibers pull out your tablets of a new gaming religion and let the teacher begin all of that here in dover sibierski technology on stage here on along with the future coverage. welcome back in this second part of my interview with

pressure because of the low again head of the meeting of the european central bank also dragging all sentiment days out because they say that japan's current account surplus poll lower than expected. and here in moscow the markets have opened in the past the r.t.s. is adding amounts half a percent while the my sex is up point three percent eagle pops off from right capital says the stocks are close to the four so i will grow in the first half we get. overall we are quite positive from the second one first quarter and bill in the first half of the year at all. but this goes if you to contribute to the overall consensus on the market which suggests that the first half will be you will be more or less difficult while the second one will be more positive with vice versa and we think that situation with the european debt would not affect that much on the back which is market is did last year so we see some improvements and we think that we're close to the bottom of this it's a middle of the crises itself but the influence on the equities markets because of european problems. and all the new russia second largest still make us of a stall

under pressure because of the law again ahead of the meeting of the european central bank also draggin sentiment in days out as i said that japan's current account surplus follow up than expected and the european stocks have opened today questions that say it is not so negative while german taxes of course of the cents high also guys to do with that the japanese economy contracting in the fourth quarter keep investors on that and harry most of the markets have just slipped into the red off to open up the causes of nice but yachts as my sex just down a notch. let's have a look at some individual sad news on the my side and he made his a mix is our guest monopoly is slightly out the company says it will spend seven billion dollars on the sochi olympics and the oil company lukoil is raising out of a sense and active-x. is among the main dennis for the second about some ripples of the red all this on alliance cars increase it sharon the russian homemaker took fifty per cent in the first quarter of the share a go pop saw from the right size and capital says the stops to grow in the first half of this year. overall we are quite positiv

because you know the central bank of brazil is holding them because china is still holding in china still holding them because japan is still holding them there there is no alternative on a scale large enough to accommodate a. flight from the dollar. and still ahead more from my interview with bestselling author and producer addison reagan where i ask him how long he thinks it will take for this credit bubble to finally be flayed and what he thinks the american economy will look like when it does but first their closing market numbers. you just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and don't you tell the truth. i may confess and i am a total get of friends that i love driving hip hop music and pretty. much it was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the will without you she has played. the. guitar sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't know i'm tom or welcome is a big issue. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decision

japan and china battled for its leadership. amro finally began operations in 2011 more than a decade after the plan was created. the former executive of china's central bank now the director of amro expressed a strong sense of caution about europe's present financial situation. >> the urgency to reach our consensus cannot be overemphasized in order to strengthen the regional financial safety net. i sincerely hope that amro will have safeguard the asian plus three countries from these global uncertainties and make contribution to the stability, growth and prosperity of this region. >> reporter: he pointed to the need for making the fund more accessible as well as strengthening the system to prevent a financial crisis in asia. amro serves to act as a regional safety net that remains vigilant under developments in europe and the world. >>> china has been plagued by a series of fatal accidents involving school buses. many of the incidents are being blamed on poor safety practices especially in rural areas. this issue may ignite fierce criticism of the government. >>> on december 12th, an elementary school bus filled with students crashed into a ditch in a rem

of nuclear plants can go back on line following the catastrophe at fukushima. we will be taking and "in depth" will get just a radiation continues to pose a health bank risk in japanen outside fukushima's exclusion zone. some sports now. in golf, a german pro got off to a poor start in abu dhabi. he has won three times in his career. he finished the day five over par. there were two holes in one, including this one on the 12th. another spaniard got the other one. rory is five under par and shares the lead with a swedish player. stay with us. we're going to japan. we will be looking at this situation, especially the radiation poisoning outside of the fukushima exclusion zone. stay with us for that. ♪ ♪ >> when i organize the party, it is a real party. there is no rubbish hanging about. everyone writes their own name on their own cup, and then we party. the great thing is, you already know her name. >> welcome back. it has been over 10 months now since the quake and a tsunami that devastated parts of northeastern japan and caused the nuclear disaster at the fukushima nuclear power plant. tens of thousands of people were forced to flee the area of which remains heavi

bank as a clearinghouse for all oil purchases. so big countries like china, japan, south korea could potentially comply with these sanctions and either stop buying iranian oil or reduce their consumption of iranian oil. the chinese are already negotiating with iran in order to reduce prices. so this is a big worry for the regime in iran. it could really impact iran's economic health. so iran is being very aggressive in the persian gulf as basically a warning to the united states. but also the international community that, look, if you oppose -- impose sanctions on us, specifically the central bank, we might take action. this is basically iran's way of dissuading the sanctions. >> but it didn't stop washington from imposing its sanctions. the european union is going to do its own, the british defense secretary is in town -- was in town last week, basically said it's going to be unacceptable. at the end of the day, how is washington and everybody going to respond to this? >> i think the key is what the asian countries do, specifically china, japan and south korea. if europe stops buying iranian oil, iran will have to sell asia more oil. and, again, a lot of countries will keep buying irani

bank, toshiba. a lot of japanese manufacturers make components that go into apple products. >> and as catherine reminded us, the state of the union address by president obama coming up. >> indeed. a lot of investors here in japan will be looking at any keep statements he makes regarding jobs and that relates to all of the sales for the world's biggest economy for japanese exporters. that's crucial as well. as catherine said we will be covering that on nhk world. >> thanks for that update. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> the international monetary fund downgraded outlook for the world economic growth. it says global financial conditions deteriorated and risks have escalated. they revised the forecast to 3.3%, down 0.7 percentage points from the september forecast. it says the global recovery is threatened by intensifying problems in the euro area and instability elsewhere. the fund expects europe to go into a mild recession. it adds growth in most other advanced economies is also lower and predicts a significant slow down in emerging and developing economies. they kept the outlook for the u.s. economic growth unchanged at 1.8%. downgraded the forecast for eurozone by minus 0.5%. the outlook f

banking system. most markets in the east finished as well. china closed off more than 1% to the lowest level in nearly three years. japan was also down and worried that the strength ofwe'll see what futures are doing indicating a lower opening for us as well maybe about 50 or 60 points on the dow jones industrial average well. chevron could be heading back ÷l1' case. they won 9. $5 billion and they say they will try to collect billions more through courts and other countries. they will also attempt to confiscate company assets and freeze their accounts, chevron is not commenting. >>> they are still investigating the reno airways accident, the one that killed 11 people. organizers are telling us about plans for this year's event including attribute to the victims. >>> how local weather affecting cattle ranchers and what could it mean for beef and prices? x(n]Ñ 'íç ;g2g your bay area weather. [people chatting] everyone, it's $37 a piece. paying with your smart phone instead of cash. that's a step forward. with chase person-to-person quickpay, you can send money directly to your friend's checking account. all you need is their email address or mobile number. don't worr

>> it is the joblessness, one of them, but there are many other problems that they cause. we have zombie banks in history, we had them in japan had them in the u.s. in the '80s. and until we dealt with them -- >> the problem is they suck all the money. >> they suck money. and when we finally address the issue, the taxpayer ends up paying double, three times, four times more. so we end up with the bill, always, and we pay more. but meanwhile, because this is so global, it's european banks, it's u.s. banks, and the world economy is caught in a spiral, which it can't get out of. i mean, we're talking about -- >> it can get out of it. it can get out of it. you've just got to cancel the debt. the mathematical opposite of canceling mon printing money is canceling debt. if can i print money out of thin air, i can delete a few zeros on the way out. >> we need serious debt restructuring, in u.s. and europe. in the u.s., we have mortgage debt that needs to be restructured. but we can't do those because we have these zombie banks that are so week that if we did the restructuring, they would fall apart. they would collapse. >> so yalman,

japan nikkei was up nearly 1.5%. china, south carolina, and hong kong had strong finishes of the week on good reports from the banks. checking in on our numbers right now. the futures do point to a bit of a mixed opening. slightly lower for the dow and s & p. the nasdaq could get a pop from earnings reports there. google reporting a bit of a disappointing report. general motors is the top selling auto maker in the world. gm reports selling 9 million vehicles last year. that is up 7.6% from 2010. toyota slipped to third. of course the japanese car maker was hit hard by the earthquake and tsunami in march. >>> california has a new requirement about genetic screening for newborn babies. this may lead to a first of its kind surgery. >> after they were born they started losing a lot of weight. >> we'll have the details of exactly what we're talking about coming up. >>> plus the long wait for snow is over. take a look. we'll tell you what to expect when you're heading to the sierra this weekend. everyday, an average of 5,000 people switch from cascade to finish dishwasher detergent. that's about 150,000 a month - over 2 m

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 e

japan have written to the agencies explaining that such an uneven playing field could undermine the liquidity of government debt markets outside of the u.s. as well as impede the ability of foreign banks to manage theirly quid thety and funding needs. iib strongly urges the agencies to adopt an exemption for trading foreign government securities. lastly, i would be remiss not to comment on the extremely complex compliance requirements. they impose extensive, quantitative reporting requirements on banks that engage in permitted activities such as market making and risk-mitigating hedging. apart from the questionable usefulness of the approach, such requirements should not apply to the non-operations of foreign banks without regard as to whether the u.s. taxpayer is put at risk. in conclusion, we are very concerned that the burdens of the proposed regulation will far outweigh the alleged benefits. it will encroach on the autonomy of foreign banks and regulators, harm the competitiveness of u.s. markets, the global markets that u.s. counterparts transact in the. we urge the agencies to take their time in developing regulations to implement the rule to make sure they get it right, and we

japan have written to the agencies explaining that such an uneven playing field could undermine the liquidity of government debt markets outside of the u.s. as well as impede the ability of foreign banksto manage their liquidity in funding needs. iib strong urges the agencies to adopt an exception for trading foreign government securities. lastly i would be remiss not to comment on the extreme complex compliance requirements. they impose extensive quantitative reporting requirements on banks that engage in permitted activity such as market making and risk mitigating hedging. apart from the question the use, such requirements should not apply to the non-u.s. operations of foreign banks without regard as to whether the u.s. taxpayer is put at risk. in conclusion, we are very concerned that the burdens of the proposed regulation will far outweigh the alleged benefits. it will encroach on the autonomy of foreign banks and regulators. it will harm the competitiveness of u.s. markets, the global markets, that u.s. counterparts transacting. we urge the hc to take the time in developing regulations to implement the rule to make sure they get it right. we would submit the bottle through requir