the bank of japan maintained its record stimulus. entin consumer and signs of strength in business investment indicate that japan is weathering a higher sales tax so far. most economists forecast the central bank will increase stimulus at some point this year to boost inflation. staying with central banks, mark carney says risks remain to the u.k.'s economic recovery, including the strength of sterling. speaking in london last night, he addressed the prospect of a rate increase. >> there was already great speculation about the exact time of the first rate hike. this decision is becoming more balanced. it could happen sooner than financial markets currently expect. to be clear, the mpc as no preset course. the ultimate decision will be driven -- at this point, it is safe to conclude as the mpc has that the remaining scope first spare capacity to be used up before tightening. pricing and wage indicators should be watched closely to determine how that is evolving. >> on that note, all signs of the economy are pointing to a strengthening

the only buyer is the bank of japan so far. any bank and any trader wanting to move is basically producing major price signals that are very, very hard to handle if anything goes wrong. this is why the bank of japan is also stressing that the overseas environment is fine, also, asia looks a little bit tricky and everybody's in a difficult situation. so here the point is really the government needs to move and the corporate tax hike. this is the long-term move that breaks the surface. and the ice on the surface. >> martin, thank you so much. martin schultz of the research institute. great to speak to you. >>> still to come on the show, nothing to see here. former ecb board member. >>> you're watching "worldwide exchange," business news from around the globe. >>> prospects of civil war in iraq send oil prices to a 9-month high. stocks fall as militants move toward baghdad and president obama says a u.s. intervention is on the table. >>> shares in uk as house builders fall to the bottom of the ftse as mark carney warns a rate hike

and the bank of japan is maintaining unprecedented stimulus. monetary base at a pace of $670 billion per year. they are trying to boost inflation. ♪ now that the world cup is underway, english football fans can finally look forward to being knocked out of the tournament after a penalty shootout. that is a joke. the distance between the penalty spot and the goal is only 12 yards. a resulting this can cause decades of anguish. one man has used that pain to get to the heart of the matter. onhas written eight books the art and the psychology of the perfect penalty. ben littleton. blends sport -- it sport, science, psychology. the book is called "12 yards." there is, then. a few weeks since we saw you. england, let's the frank. they are terrible at taking penalties in these tournaments. the first chart shows that. >> that's right. in theory, they should not be terrible. they have good penalty takers. but the all-time shootout terrible -- table. in mindfigure to bear is 78%. the average conversion rate from the penalty spot. 66%, way below the average

. >>> and the head of japan's central bank has commented on the direction of the country's economic policyron madison has more from the business desk. >> yes, that's right, shery. bank of japan governor cur rhoda has stressed the importance of the growth strategy the government is now mapping out. cur rhoda made the comment at a speech in tokyo. he also said the effect of consumption tax increase in april have been limited. >> translator: many businesses see the impact of the tax hike as within expectations. and they say consumption remains firm as a trend. we think the influence of the higher tax is likely to wane gradually by this summer. >> kuroda pointed to a shortage of manpower as one of the issues in japan's economic growth. he also said it's necessary to bring more women, elderly people and foreigners with professional skills into the labor market to enhance the country's labor supply capacity. he said the bank of japan will steadily pursue its ultra easy monetary policy to achieve its 2% inflation target. >>> japanese government officials are giving a egg will up to people conduct

but it's a relative positioning of the bank of japan. we'll see some disappointment this year that maybe the bank of japan are more upbeat than the market anticipated, that the markets will pair back its quantitative easing from the bank of japan. if we stop and look and see what the bank of japan is doing, it's a huge amount of monetary stimulus. it has no idea that it's going to start paying that back as the fed continues to taper, as the fed moves towards a hike, a relative amount of easing at the bank of japan is doing will become even more apartment. so i think there is a weakening story out there, but i think this is probably very gradual and maybe not one for this month. >> jane, stay right with us. because the bank of england's governor mark carney is appearing before the treasury select committee. the governor is expected to be grilled on the may inflation report which claims the bank's economy is on its way back. many investors will listen to see when they're going to start raise benchmark interest rates. we're waiting for mark

government officials and policymakers at the bank of japan have been working to pull the country out of deflation. new figures from the central bank show prices of goods traded among companies rose faster than at any time in the last 5 1/2 years. bank of japan officials say the corporate goods price index rose 4.4% in may compared to a year ago. they say the consumption tax hike in april pushed up the prices of a wide range of products but even without counting the effect of the tax hike, prices rose 1.6%. officials say one reason was rising demand for steel frames used in the construction sector. they also point to higher prices for electricity, gas, and water. on to the markets now. investors in asia not making major moves amid a lack of fresh trading cues. major benchmarks finished out the day like this. only limited price fluctuations were seen across the board. investors showed a muted reaction to news that the world bank trimmed this year's global growth forecast to 2.8%. now the nikkei average rose half a percent and finished at 15,069 rebounding from a one-week low that it hit

for example bank of japan's bond paralyses seemed spreading across markets the bank of japan's unprecedented asset purchase program has released a creeping paralysis that is freezing government bond trading constricting the end to the tightest range on record and breaking stock market activity that's an interesting word breaking but actually what they're saying is breaking b r a k i n so putting a stop but it's also breaking it's breaking the stock markets is breaking all the markets they're creating bonds zillah yes mullins all of that is going to come out from japan in the bond film was being fed by zero percent interest rates and. we couldn't they could imagine that the yield of bond zillah rising from tokyo is in fact the utter capitulation of these bond buyers and you see the old will suddenly skyrocket and this will cause more damage than the nuclear bomb and any of the atomic bombs more damage more and more damage than godzilla and bond zillah will stop the globe and crave unprecedented nightmarish economic hardship as

in the last 10 days, he was quoted repeatedly saying that -- only so much the bank of japan can do. est to seen as a abe to increase stimulus. limits to the bank of japan. >> if you take a look at the calendar this week, what are you most excited about? >> tomorrow is a public holiday in hong kong. that's exciting. as i said, on the supply side, it's not a problem. what has made sentiment week in japan recently is this realization by suppliers that demand is just not there. it's not going to increase in the next few months just because prices are much higher than in march because of the vat increase. of course, external demand is not yet strong. >> what about australia? we have the rba meeting tomorrow. >> it is a situation in which the economy is lackluster. they still have a problem in some cities in real estate, but they know they cannot address the real estate problem with an interest rate. exchange rate has been relatively strong, but still in a range that is tolerable. >> do you think it is tolerable, or do you think a little bit of a danger? >> there has been an increase in th

do, it is the japanese equities that county. . >> they want to make the point actually that the bank of japan announced, as well, that they're now the biggest holder of jgbs. effectively, it zaps all the liquidity out of the bond market right now. where is the escape plan here? >> this is where it gets very interesting because you're absolutely right. the bank of japan has engineered the great rotation, the great rotation with japan's banks, selling their jgb portfolio to the central bank. and, you know, where do we go from here? what happens if and when, you know, the economic recovery actually, you know, gains further credibility. you know, where is the end game plan here? we'll have to discuss this in 2015, 2016. right now, again, the focus is still on getting private institutional investors to commit to more risk assets. that's, you know, the window that we're in right now. >> would you look at the future. thank you so much for your insight. head of japanese equity research at jpmorgan securities japan. >>> we've had some comments or further comments out of iraq. sunni militants apparentl

. >>> prices of corporate services in japan were up in may. bank of japan officials say the services producer price index rose 0.9% from a year earlier. it was 99.8 against a base of 100 set in 2010. that excludes the consumption tax. officials say the increase is due to a rise in advertising fees. >>> let's see how markets are starting this day. investors are worried by what's happening in iraq and they are selling stocks. tokyo share prices opened lower following the worst loss in a month on wall street. analysts are saying that investors are selling japanese shares to take advantage of the rally. now the dollar-yen pair is struggling to break out of a narrow rage. people who track the market say that dealers are inclined to buy the yen against the dollar as they say it is one of the safer currencies in asia. >>> and oil traders drove up the price of the benchmark wti oil futures. >>> and looking at other asian markets. the kospi is lower by a half percent. in china, shanghai's key index is down .7%. let's take a look at what's happening in hong

if you think about what's actually happened, if you look at the ministry of finance and the bank of japanether, what we've had is the ministry of finance has not able to drive growth by having this huge great deficit of gdp. the bank of japan has gone out and flooded japan with more liquidity. and still not willing to go out and buy japanese equities, which isn't a great resounding yes, let's go buy equities. what happened was they moved in and changed the board and said you guys are going to go in and buy equities and now we have a much more understanding board and the flip side of that is that they to reduce their allegations to jgbs. now, the only guy that's able to step in and pick up the slack there is the bank of japan. we're almost seeing abe jumping in and forcing koroda into a path that he doesn't perhaps want to take. >> thank you for joining us. >>> and in corporate news, the latest the mystery has been solved. alibaba decides to list its shares on the new york stock exchange, dealing a blow to rival nasdaq. the e-commerce giant will trade up the ticker baba when it makes its m

market players avoided making aggressive moves ahead of the outcome of the bank of japan's policy meeting. in sydney the s&p asx200 index also seeing declines of nearly half a percent. 5, 428. the number of people employed in australia fell unexpectedly in may. in seoul the kospi losing more than .1%. the central bank expressed some caution about sluggish domestic consumption. >>> the people who run firms in japan have been pulling back from oerds new equipment. but economists are confident managers will keep reinvesting in their businesses. managers placed machinery oerds in april worth about $3 billion. that's down 9.1% from the previous month. the numbers don't include orders from ships and electric power companies because they tend to fluctuate. orders for manufacturers were down more than 9%. people in the transportation and financial sectors ended up investing more. orders from nonmanufacturers grew .9%. analysts at the cabinet office maintained their assessment saying machinery orders are on a rising trend. >>> members of a government panel say japanese companies need to increase t

and life in japan reminds them of suicide that's why there's so many kids committing suicide in japan is a whole team suicide cult because the misery index is skyrocketing because the bank of japan is fostering suicide cults that they've become like the charles manson of central bankers in a squeaky fromme is really mark carney is really squeaky fromme you know he runs the bank of england but he's part of a suicide cult you know the sharon tate world sharon tate now going to get our throat slashed by these irresponsible central banking terrorists again they're all focusing on asset prices not on labor not on wages and even j.p. morgan looking at europe it is. what amps are assets that's why they focus on assets so even j.p. morgan looks at japan and they see that the problem here price hikes without confidence that wages are going to rise will hurt appetite for spending said a doubt she senior economist at j.p. morgan chase and company in tokyo ave has to raise people's belief that the economy will improve meaning their own wages but their wages aren't increasing because again we have i don't know what is beyond. bizarre that we raise it is that every every solution to

government, the bank of japan, they don't want see that. ee prices rise. >> japan is poised to attract a number -- a record number of foreign visitors. visalso some easing of rules. japan recorded a net gain in became revenue since abe prime minister. kdbi says a letter group is investing [indiscernible] japan's government considering a new tax on slot machine games. would cover lost revenue from a planned corporate tax cut next year. let's have a look at any impact that might have on these pachinko makers. government giveth the corporate tax cuts and again take them away. , pinballg companies makers, they are taking a bit of a hit today, one of the biggest declines on the topix. sankyo down by a third. heiwa isell -- and the biggest decline in. do watch out for that. pinball makers are seeing declines across the board. >> let's move to some stories making headlines around the world. forces claiming to take control of border crossings to jordan and syria. they now control a string of towns including 155 kilometers from baghdad. -- is sending

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why yeah well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the euro zone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six percent the e.c.b. might have to do more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.b. does do more what would you recommend to do and why why i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push for them and that's pretty clear from his language his spotty language certainly suggest it i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the united

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the eurozone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistant. two more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six percent the e.c.b. might have to do you more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.b. does do more what would you recommend it do and why why i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push further i mean that's pretty clear from his language his spotty language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the united

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why yeah well i mean inflation has been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the euro zone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six percent the e.c.b. might have to do you more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.b. does do more what would you recommend to do and why why i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push further i mean that's pretty clear from his language his body language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the un

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the euro zone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six per. the e.c.b. might have to do you more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.v. does do more what would you recommend it do and why his language is spotty language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the united states the fed of course has. been a big buyer of u.s. treasury securities and mortgage backed securities the

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the eurozone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six per se. the e.c.v. might have to do you more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.v. does do more what would you recommend it do and why why i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push for them and that's pretty clear from his language his spotty language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the united st

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the eurozone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six percent the e.c.b. might have to do you more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.b. does do more what would you recommend to do and why well i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push for them and that's pretty clear from his language his body language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european context than it is in the united sta

. >>> and policymakers at the bank of japan have taken a look at what's ahead for the economy, and they haven't changed their assessment. they say japan is still on a path of moderate recovery, despite the higher consumption tax. the policymakers have been pumping billions of dollars into the markets every month to boost the money supply, they're hoping to move inflation closer to their 2% target. they decided unanimously to continue with their current policies. consumers across the country rushed to buy goods before the tax hike in april, and then demand stopped. still the boj governor kuroda stresses the impact of the tax hike is limited. >> translator: the environment for employment and income is expected to continue to improve. personal spending remains firm. i think the effects of the higher tax are likely to start weakening after this summer. >> policymakers have found that exports have leveled off recently. business investments are said to have increased moderately, and corporate profits have also grown. well market players in tokyo cheered on by prime minister abe's decision to

as a catch-22 for the bank of japan. they start to see an acceleration in inflation dwindling, there will be cause for more qe effort by the bank of japan. similarly, if inflation continues to accelerate in japan against that back shop of stagnant or falling real household incomes, that presents a problem to the resilience of the economy going forward. >> the thing, richard, is that japan inc. is doing a lot of buybacks. they have a lot of cash. they're doing less capital expenditure, though. what does japan inc. need to do to help dissipate in the abenomics story? participate in the abenomics story? >> we really have to arrest the decline in household income if a are going to forge sustainable comeback. there is capital expenditure going on, but is going on outside the borders of japan, -- they relocate production activities, particularly in those emerging southeast asian economies. we have seen in investment spending, but not in japan. we really need to see the income side of the economy, the internal side, improving.

quantitative easing that is large scale asset purchases as we've seen from the fed the bank of england in the bank of japan. now i think the big concern is inflation or better put deflation so are you concerned about inflation expectations in the euro zone and if so why well i mean inflation is been declining relentlessly for most of the last two years it's down two point five percent now across the eurozone i think one of the primary reasons that. german resistance to more aggressive monetary loosening. is being beaten down is the fact that inflation in germany is now down to a mere point six percent the e.c.b. might have to do more in fact mario draghi himself said at the last e.c.b. presser so if the e.c.b. does do more what would you recommend to do and why why i think there's no doubt that mario draghi would like to push for them and that's pretty clear from his language his spotty language certainly suggested i think he wants to go forward with some version of quantitative easing large scale asset purchases it's clearly much more difficult to do in the european. tax than it is in the united states th

asian markets ended mixed ahead of the bank of japan's two-day policy meeting. nikkei added half a percent. hong kong's hang seng lost a quarter percent. the government said wholesalers added to their stockpile but that didn't impress investors on wall street. the dow gained only two points yesterday but still set a new record high. the nasdaq added just 1 point. the s&p lost half a point. >>> google is heading into the sky. the internet giant is buying a company called skybox imaging for $500 million. its satellites takes high-resolution pictures and videos of earth. google says skybox will help them keep their maps up to date and eventually improve internet access to remote parts of the world. >>> dunkin' donuts is heading west into california. the east coast chain plans to start construction on its first free-standing stores in the state next month. right now the stores are only in four cities, but c & d plans to open more than a thousand in the future. >>> and, anne-marie, the airlines are getting better at arriving online. the government says the on-time ar

war but i think it's just modeled on misguided thinking on the part of the federal reserve the bank of japan and the european central bank all the central banks have pushed their interest rates down to virtually zero and so what happens there everyone wants to get a yield wants to get a return and so the hot money flows out of the united states senate because in the countries where they can get a higher nominal interest rate like turkey for example and the total amount of money that that's flowed out the so-called carry trade they call it the carry trade you borrow it at almost nothing and invest it some more attractive interest rate this carry trade it amounts to about two trillion dollars it's enormous it has. like what you said aaron it hasn't stopped because it will stop only one u.s. interest rates go up and that's the that's the part of the tapering conversation that is key for the carry trade is that long as interest rates stay near zero or very low in the united states the carry trade will will remain but once interest rates start going up in the carry trade on the lines that it's go

war but i think it's does modeled on misguided thinking on the part of the federal reserve the bank of japan and the european central bank all the central banks have pushed their interest rates down to virtually zero and so what happens there everyone wants to get a yield wants to get a return and so the hot money flows out of the united states senate because in the countries where they can get a higher nominal interest rate like turkey for example and the total amount of money that's that's flowed out the so-called carry trade they call this the carry trade you borrow it at almost nothing and invest it some more attractive interest rate does carry trade it amounts to about two trillion dollars it's enormous it has . like what you said erin it hasn't stopped because it will stop only one u.s. interest rates go up that's the that's the part of the tapering conversation that is key for the carry trade is that long as interest rates stay near zero or very low in the united states to carry trade will will remain but once interest rates start going up in the carry trade on the lines that it's goi

and life in japan reminds them of suicide that's why there's so many kids committing suicide in japan there's a whole teen suicide called because the misery index is skyrocketing because the bank of japan is fostering suicide cults that they've become like the charles manson of central bankers in a squeaky fromme is really mark carney is really squeaky fromme you know he runs the bank of england he's part of a suicide call you know the sharon we're all sharon tate now going to get our throat slashed by these irresponsible central banking terrorists again they're all focusing on asset prices not on labor not on wages and even j.p. morgan looking at europe if you look. assets that's where they focus on assets so even j.p. morgan looks at japan and they see that the problem here price hikes without confidence that wages are going to rise well her appetite for spending said a doubt she senior economist at j.p. morgan chase and company in tokyo abbay have to raise people's belief that the economy will improve meaning their own wages but their wages aren't increasing because again we have i don't know what is beyond their plates it's something so bizarre that we. can't raise wages t

on friday, the bank of japan deciding on policy.xpected to key policy study friday. -- policy steady friday. how much would you pay to dine with billionaire investor warren buffett? apparently, somebody from singapore has for out more than $2 million for the chance at an annual charity auction. let's get to singapore. here?de the winning bid >> a mysterious man by the name of andy. we don't know more about him. we have not managed to track him down. a lot of money, enough to pay almost $2.2 million for lunch with buffett and seven friends. the amount paid is more than double last year's. his bid was made for delayed, less than 10 minutes to go in the auction. this auction has gone on for years. 15 years, to be exact. lunch with buffett at a steakhouse in new york, smith and wants to, and it is all in the name of charity. he is raising money for an end to poverty organization -- foreign anti-poverty -- he is raising money for and anti-poverty organization. it has done really well. two years ago, an unidentified man paid $3.5 million.

war but i think it's just modeled on misguided thinking on the part of the federal reserve the bank of japan and the european central bank all the central banks have pushed their interest rates down to virtually zero and so what happens ever everyone who wants to get a yield wants to get a return and so the hot money flows out of the united states senate because in the countries where they can get a higher nominal interest rate like turkey for example and the total amount of money that that's flowed out the so-called carry trade they call it the carry trade you borrow it at almost nothing and invest it some more attractive interest rate this carry trade it amounts to about two trillion dollars it's enormous it has. like what you said aaron it hasn't stopped because it will stop only when u.s. interest rates go up that's the that's the part of the tapering conversation that is key for the carry trade as long as interest rates stay near zero or very low in the united states the carry trade will will remain but once interest rates start going up in the carry trade on the lines that it's going t

you still may have to ease further ahead of the bank of japan which now is buying twice as much assets as the federal reserve is out of monthly basis i think the dollar will strengthen over time. ok now i want to ask you what's the future for the us dollar are you bullish or bearish in the medium term medium term here. medium term i think that the dollar's demise is greatly exaggerated i think many of my friends are worried about the rise of china and i just don't see that as a real protest a potential threat to the u.s. either in the near term medium term or even the longer term say over the next several years i think that the us dollar is shown itself to be a safe haven what do people do when the world looks like a mess they buy us t. bills and i think that a lot of the us macro situation is improving the deficit has fallen from over ten percent of g.d.p. to less than three percent of g.d.p. the u.s. current account deficit which is another knock on the u.s. as far as well it's roughly half of what it was it's at its worst and maybe even a third of the size it was so i think the u.s.

our concerns is we are in an artificial environment with not only the fed, but the ecb, bank of england, bank of japanating rates lower on a global scale. difficult to judge how much risk there is. when your benchmarks are all manipulated lower, how does investor behavior and what does that do to asset prices? generally your discounting on one side creates inflation of asset prices on the other, something that riza is uncomfortable. all's well, we will see higher prices. if they ever, i don't know when they will, but then you see significant downside, this is the artificial environment that has us concerte concerned. has us concerte concerned. >> terms of corporate governance and also in terms of some of the activities alibaba is involved in. i am interested in learning about their finance activities, this is actually spun off a couple years ago and a controversial move, but still there waiting into the rough and tumble of chinese banking shadow banking system. they could be geniuses, they could be false. i am not really sure. they could end up dominating a very lucrative finance space or they could

that's the dollar equivalent of the bank of japan's ownership of their own debt market making them officiallyof march, a little behind, they are now officially the biggest holder in insurance companies, the lifers, of course, always holding on to the longer term securities, especially in japan, are now second. so just a whisker less than 2 trillion. our most's recent number on our 4-plus billion number sheet for the united states federal reserve bank is a be to point to 5 to 27, just shy of 2.3 trillion. not much disparity and the fed leads the pack with china coming in second and aforementioned japanese third under the federal reserve. what does it all mean? a couple people on in the last several days that worked at the fed or write about the fed. one common denominator i have with them and my own personal opinion, not only the big efs central banking experience of all-time, the biggest kind of interloping in the free markets in the united states by any entity in history when you consider the quantitative easing purchase program. and while that's gigantic, the amount of research done on the

the bank of japan said that this will the price gain probably slow in the coming months before pickingain. askedesident barack obama u.s. lawmakers to approve $500 million to arm and train moderate syrian rebels fighting bashar al-assad's regime. the administration is seeking to rein in the extremists, whose fighters spilled across the syrian border to iraq. it would also aid neighboring countries jordan, lebanon, turkey, and iraq. eu leaders meet in brussels today and at the top of their agenda is the next european commission president. u.k. prime minister david cameron has waged a war against jean-claude juncker's appointment. joining us now to discuss this is howard sykes. welcome to the program. thank you very much for joining us. david cameron confirming today that he is going to stick to his principles over the juncker question of his appointment. has he picked the right fight? >> i do not think he has picked it. it has picked him. in some ways, i think that where he stands is absolutely correct. it is nonsense to have a vote on eu membership, which it is clear a majority of peop