surely the ecb and the bundesbank need to come to some accord here and ecb needs to amend its policy appropriately for the largest economy in europe. >> i don't think that's quite the right way of looking at it. i don't know the internal discussions. i can't comment on that. but, you know, the ecb's job is to look at your area inflation and not any specific country. so it will never be perfectly appropriate for a specific country, which has a different inflation rate or inflation outlook than the euro average. we know that. that's part of having a common currency. and there are other mechanisms for basically, you know, you control that. governments have fiscal policy, so, you know, if there is faster growth in germany, we can certainly then consolidate more quickly and move towards those targets. >> you started talking about higher taxes, we can't go on. volcker, nice to have you with us. thank you for giving us your time. volcker veeland joining us, professor at university and one of angela merkel's wise men. back to you for now. >> good stuff, geoff, thank you for that. plenty more

our correspondent sent us the summary of the thursday trading session in frankfurt. >> the ecb is stuck at between a rock and a hard place these days. on the one hand, they promised low interest rates for a long time, especially to the financial markets and the financial sector, of course. on the other hand, in the u.s., we see that the yields to go slightly up and the u.s. federal reserve may stop its bond buying program pretty soon, so the markets reacted to the ecb decision only slightly. the euro went down a little bit because the interest rates will not rise in the near future. on the other hand, shares managed to get just slightly into positive territory. >> we stay in frankfurt for a closer look at thursday's numbers. the dax finished the day up by nearly .5%, finishing their at 80 234. the euro stoxx 50 doing even better. across the atlantic, the tao at this hour trading up very slightly -- the tao -- the dow at this hour trading up very slightly. the trial resumed in munich a -- beate zschape. >> 10 people died between 2000 and 2007. the court was set today to hear from one of

on the back partly of a much more dovish than expected ecb. ftse 100 flat this morning.ra dax is off by around .2%. so how do you make money in these markets with so much -- here is what the experts have been telling us this morning. >> technology is still quite interesting because despite the fact the market is strong this year, the technology sector is not leading it. and it is one area where you can see very strong cash balances and some value. so i think it is worth looking and trawling through there. >> this is something increasingly we want to be using in portfolios because the risk looking at longer term we think starts to rise. and i think that's really the key message for us and lingers. people haven't considered it, it is starting to be an opportunity for investors to think about in portfolios and when the market is right to incorporate into their asset allocations. >> there is a missed stock. if you look at the first half of the year, it wasn't the only new bank to generate revenue growth. it was the only uk bank to beat market expectations. it came in 5% ahea

it's not for on me to say what the ecb should do. i think our job is to try and predict what they will do and try and position for that asvest investor. the grounds for them doing more i think is very strong. but there seems to be no clear consensus within the ecb to act now. as the economy is improving, i think that reduces the likelihood of any immediate action. i think for them to react, you've either got to have some sort of loss of momentum in the economy or some sort of greater volatility in financial markets. lastly, we've got a quality review coming next year and there may be more stress in the banking system on the back of that that the ecb will react to. >> miles, deidre in london. i usually sit in the singapore office and see all this enthusiasm about the recovery. do you think those expectations are a little overblown and that investors need to scale back or at least hold on a little bit? >> i think the enthusiasm is because what are we now, almost six years into the great recession and we're just barely recovering. so i

we were waiting for ecb and boe. >> both of them came out. >> the ecb, the key interest rate unchangedt its rate unchanged. overnight, the bank maintained the monetary stimulus. offering an economic view that the policy is working. the bottom line is from all these central banks, status quo this morning. jobs data, less than 15 minutes away, we will be getting the adp employment report from adp. forecasters say 170,000 private payrolls were probably added in the last month. >>> and the president clearing a major hurdle in his push for a u.s. military strike against syria. ayman javers joins us from washington with more on that. >> reporter: good morning, becky. the president did get the vote he wanted in the united states committee. now the measure will move to the full senate, also moves to the house of representatives, where it's unclear whether or not they can get the vote. they expect to have that by the end of the week next week. meanwhile, president obama touching down in st. petersburg, russia this morning. where he will meet with the g20. this will be another headache for presi

of course, the bundes bank is hitting the general council of the ecb, as well, and the ecb is mullingight-year low as we were discussing earlier on, as well. and i caught up with him and i asked him about this option to have another lto. take a listen. >> it is not activated, then it is a really good thing. i think what we learned during the crisis is that if you don't keep the pressure into the pipeline, then nothing will change on the political side. so just being -- an announcement program did a stabilization, but the bundes bank is still much our task to finance countries. we are the monetary policy institute and, as i said, the politicians have to deal with their properties. >> we're seeing a decline of liquidity. but at the same time, the ecb is talking about another lto. how can that be? >> well, the king of speculators what will be next if there is maybe another three year. what is for sure is that the situation of the banks improved. if it's for sure, the peak, the height of the excess liquidity was ruffly around 830 million euros. now we are around 250 billion euros. this is

. >> the ecb in frankfurt. next year, 700 staff will begin their task of watching over 130 banks which together account for 80% of banking assets in the eurozone. it is part of a plan to guarantee financial stability in the block. the european parliament is now giving the green light after last-minute wrangling was delayed the vote by couple of days. the european commission wants more. >> we still have lots of work to do. the joint supervisory body is a very important step but it is only one step towards a greater banking union. >> the supervisory body is one of three pillars of the union. the other involves a scheme to close banks and a common deposit guarantee system. a fund to compensate depositors when a bank is out of business. if a bank fails, who should have the power to shut it down? the commission would like the authority. it is still facing resistance from national governments unwilling to see their role diminished. >> the eu's move towards establishing a banking regulator has been closely watched by

he said even though the key interest rate was kept unchanged at the ecb policy meeting on thursday, there were dugzs of a rate cut. let's check on how the stock market is faring this morning. at the moment, investors are taking a step back both indeces opened higher and let's have a look at the nikkei that is down by 0.08% at 14,052 points after it managed to hang on to the 14,000 level on thursday and the broader topix is up by 0.15%. we will see how the why know declines against share prices of the exports and we want to keep track of the ten-year japanese government-born yield after the bank of japan maintained their monetary easing policy. back to you. >> all right, sounds good. tokyo is the no the only market open at this hour. i will leave you with a check on those. . >>> prime minister abe has a lot on his mind these days. he is promoting tokyo's bid to host the olympics in 2020 as he meets with world leaders at the g20 summit. abe held separate talks with argentine president. he told fernandez he will make it in time for the general assembly of the international olympic committee.

if we have this contagion, the ecb at some point would have to act. >> they are preparing around the world for the federal reserve to rein in its stimulus program. if he cuts it back by more than expected, we can expect bigger market moves later in the week. >> stephen in the middle of france's financial district. let's look at how the markets for trading. >> it looked like the glass was half full over in the united states. we saw the american indices closing of blow -- gains across the board with the nasdaq closing out a 13 year high. investors seem to be in a wait and see mode as european indices finished the day in the red. some losses there when it comes to the ftse 100 in london. we will look at some of the shares that lost some steam during tuesday's trading. auto stocks, as vehicle sales are still sagging. according to an industry bowl, new car sales were down five percent in august compared to last year. a 17% drop for the french carmaker. >> french banks are launching their own paypal. >> this is a story about three major banks launching an online payment portal for tablets

what the president will say about the eurozone's economy and whether he will provide outlook for the ecb's policy. a lot of focus on central banks today and we will be keeping track of developments at the g20 meeting in russia and see how that place into the markets here in japan. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that update. the japanese government has announced the ministries made record high budget requests for the next fiscal year starting april 2014. the main reason for the giant budget is ballooning social security costs. finance ministry officials say the requests total over 99 trillion yen, nearly $1 trillion. the request for social welfare costs came to nearly $290 billion, up $10 billion from this year. this is to finance pension and medical care. such costs are expanding as japan's population ages. requests for debt servicing rose by about $30 billion to over $250 billion. the requests do not ease a shortage of daycare for preschool children because the government plans to finance these projects with revenue from a proposed consumption tax hike. the decision on whether to raise

ecb policymakers agreed to hold the rate to .5%. gross domestic product for april to june in the eurozone countries moved to positive territory for the first time in 21 months. but the eurozone labor market is still struggling. the jobless rate in july stood at 12.1%. policymakers at the bank of japan have revised upward their assessment of the country's economy, but they have decided to maintain their monetary easing measures. the policy board members ramped up a two-day meeting on thursday. the boj changed their description of the japanese economy to recovering moderately. they had previously said that the economy was starting to recover moderately. this was the first time in two months that the central bank revised upward its economic assessment. the board members say business investment is showing signs of improvement as corporate profits are recovering. they also say consumer demand is improving and personal spending is steady. but the policymakers unanimously agreed to continue the monetary easing measures introduced back in a

but with the parliamentarians and the ecb now said to give the green light, he was bullish. >> the facts tell us that our efforts have started to convince . countries are paying less to borrow. industrial output is increasing. market trust is returning. >> but some parliamentarians did not share his rosy assessment. >> austerity is undermining solidarity between states and also between citizens. >> what we see is the second phase in this process. a long period of economic salvation. >> he says the banking union will be an important factor. >> let's get a check of what has been moving the markets. this summary from the frankfurt stock exchange of what was on investors minds on wednesday. >> the upswing of the stock market has softened somewhat, but this is not a big surprise, if we look at where stock prices have climbed again. the dax is not far away from its all-time high, and the ndax has reached an all-time high this wednesday. quite obviously, investors are interested in riskier assets again. the so-called safe haven investments are not so interesting anymore. you can see it on the b

where does that fit with the ecb? therefore, at this stage, i am relatively comfortable.rkets are relatively comfortable and that's why we're not responding to this in a big way yet. >> thank you so much for that, carson nickel. alan capper, ahead of credit strategy at lloyds banking group is staying with us. still to come on the show, secretary of state john kerry warns the assad regime that words simply are not enough as he announces plans to meet his russian counterpart at the united nations later this month. we'll bring you more analysis after the break. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪ into the future. building animatronics is all about getting things to work together. the timing, the actions, the reactions. everything has to synch up. my expenses are no different. receipt match from american express synchronizes your business

we had some progress the ecb is taking over as a single supervisor. there are some proposals about resolution. but it's still very early days. we hope that after the german elections maybe some of its decisions are unlocked and we see a bit more. >> actually, i don't see anything -- i don't see how the youth unemployment level is going to change. in a way, the neutral observer has to accept that the neutral observer is going to remain scler ottic and weak at best. >> our forecast is a forecast for subdued growth. i'm not sure you can accept that youth unemployment. >> i don't see anything in political circles that's going to do anything that fuldly changes it. >> i think there are opportunities there. we have a market with 3 hunl million people favoring moments in the market in this area. >> that means someone is going to have to come out and say we are truly going to allow single market and services, right? >> yes. i don't see that happening. i've been waiting 20 years for that to happen. >> recognizing qualifications more broadly, more easily. the m

but speaking to cnbc, former ecb president jean-claude tree say says europe's central banks are in aposition and are doing better than perceived. joining us from the salt korns in singapore and speaking in a first on cnbc, john, thanks for being with us. let me first get your overall views of how you think the economic recovery is going and weigh in a little bit on what's going on in washington and what the effects might be as we head towards the debt ceiling, which seems to be the more pressing issue. >> indeed. first of all, i think the global economy can be characterized as moderate growth. the advanced economies are doing a little bit better right now than has been anticipated earlier. finally, there are signs that the eurozone has emerged from downturn and is growing albeit at a more moderate pace. some of the emerging economies are struggling with financing. but broadly put, we seem to be headed towards somewhat faster growth globally in the coming year. and that is -- that's favorable. >> and, john, what are your views on what's going on in washington right now? does this have

ecb member mirsh said the ecb is working on the banking union and they are expected to announce somethings. this is a strong mechanism which we expect to gradually shape up over the next month. in europe there's more positives for bonds than in the u.s. which also, you know, is consistent with a more positive stance on bonds in europe versus the u.s. >> how much can you actually decouple? if u.s. yields rise, the fact is we can't decouple from that, can we? >> well, look. the differential between the ten year in the u.s. versus europe was 50 bases points. now it's around 1%. there's been a little bit of outperformance on european bonds. to be honest, the bonds which we like in europe are the higher yielding bonds. you get exposure to the recovery across smaller companies, smaller borrowers which are now starting to see the revenues go up and bids for their companies which is any source of revenue of growth in their domestic market. we're definitely starting to see signs of a turn around in europe which many people were skeptical. >> good to have you on. stick around. more to come from you

and the losses are maybe hidden on the balance sheets of the ecb. done intentionally because the german voter was not award of this before the election because it's a very complicated stuff. >> thank you so much. so, ross, what we were discussing quite often already, the ecb might end up the big dumping ground for all this sovereign debt titles, which probably will lose some value. with that, back to you. >> yeah. merkel-nomics, did you make that one up? >> yes. >> well done. creativity. creativity on the front line. we like that. >> i think i'm not -- i'm not -- i'm probably not the only one who said that already. >> well, i don't know, but we're taking that and it will be on cnbc.com fairly shortly. merkel-nomics. annette, thank you for that. we have full coverage of the german elections from berlin and athens as well. there is a picture of our team that's going to bring all that coverage for you. we will be in greece, as well. violent clashes have broken out after a 34-year-old rapper was killed. the far right party has denied any involvement in

ecb meeting to see the rhetoric from draghi and jobless claims in the 330 range right there, kickingwn from the 350 range where we've been stuck. ism manufacturing, that's the service sector looking pretty strong and the big one, non-farm payrolls with an unchanged unemployment. the way i look at it, those who think the data is strong enough to move, they are good and are ready to go and others agree it could be better, but they are not confident the enough in the outlook to take down the amount of qe right now, sue. >> steve liesman, master fisherman. what was the biggest fish you ever could the? ? >> an atlantic bluefin tuna on a fly rod. fishing fortuna is one where your wife says you can go however long you want because she wants sushi. >> back to simon. bertha coombs is tracking all the action today at the nymex. >> gold moving higher on the back of comments from president barack obama and house speaker john boehner saying he would support the president's call to act on syria, closing back above 1,400 an ounce and good manufacturing data not only from the u.s. but also some from

step is the ecb independent evaluation of bank s.fort we must turn to the single mechanism. the proposal is on the table since you live. since july. to ensure way taxpayers are no longer on the front line. progress,ay to make the way to remedy one of the most alarming and unacceptable results of the crisis, even an implicit renationalization. is the way to restore the because credit is not yet sufficiently flowing across the euro area. this needs to be addressed resolutely. growth,ly, it's about which is necessary to address unemployment. of current level unemployment is unsustainable, untenable, and socially unacceptable. all of us want to work with you as muchely to deliver of our sustainable growth agenda as we possibly can. we are recognizing all the issues. not all instruments are at european level. some are at national level. on youth focus employment and financing the .conomy we need to avoid a jobless recovery. is recommendations set out. the focus should be on what matters worse for the real economy. exploiting the market comes first. .e need to extend complete. i w

some of the support from the ecb looks encouraging. >> a lot of people are surprised that the fed did nothing. your guy at ubs, at least one of them got it right. he didn't expect anything to happen. what does that now mean for where this rally could go? >> thomas burner is the gentleman you're talking about. he deserves a lot of credit. he was on an island with that call. on the one thing, it frustrated investors. a number of investors thought that the fed missed a gigantic opportunity. let's be honest. it creates some uncertainty. on the other hand, it's the fed exerting control. they want to show that they're not going to let the yield curve get away from them. they want to show that they're going to provide support. they're looking at what's happening in washington today. right? they were looking to coat the runway a little more in the event that these fiscal clouds turn into a major storm. they looked at the fiscal tightening around housing. and that was potentially scary. and then they looked at economic data. and so they said the cost of q.e. is not that great. we don't have as

that was the ecb and what you got was a tremendous contraction, double dip and 12% unemployment.sed taxes and didn't offset any of that, and that's been the problem with europe, a huge drop in total spending in the economy, not the debt problem. the spending problem created a debt problem. >> but, jim, europe didn't do it -- the austerity that people talk about in europe consisted of them raising taxes. they didn't really cut government spending, and so they -- they got a bad growth result, not because of the -- of the spending cuts but what else they were doing in the economy. portugal, spain -- >> how come we had a bad growth result in 2013, the same as last year, despite all the tax hikes we just talked about. what was the difference? why hasn't the economy done worse with the investment tax hike and the payroll tax hikes? why, the fed >> no, it's because up until 2013 we were under the risk of a major tax increase, the inheritance tax, hit the alternative minimum tax and on down the list, and that was taken off the table in january, so i think the tax bill that they did in ja

we have an accommodative bank of england, accommodative ecb and super accommodative bank of japan. diversified international development exposure that's a key benefit. very attractive valuations particularly in europe, significantly below their long-term averages. the third thing are green chutes of economic recovery. in europe out of recession and starting to see impact in terms of economic growth and behavior in japan which will be positive for equity markets. >> what about the u.s.? you've been saying for some time now that the economy is slowly improving. but yet, we have this situation in washington that seems to be weighing down stocks. are you worried at all about the looming debate going on in washington? how are you handling that with your clients? >> we recognize that this is a very volatile time for stocks and bonds. the stock market has had a lot to guy guest over the last -- digest over the last week. thinking about the taper and the market had come to peace with the taper as long as the fed was tapering for the right reason. if the fed tapered because it saw strong mo

i will be sitting in my office and you'll be home and beam and ecb ag. stuart: you are killing me.home should have one, use it on a boat. stuart: represent the company? >> no association. stuart: out here is one for you. a 2-year-old boy was 72 pounds, is the youngest person in the world to undergo is it called bariatric surgery? shrunk the young man's stomach. a lot of people want to know why doesn't he gonna die? is there a problem for this youngster? >> this is a tough case. you should have the judge talk about this. when you are two years old i don't want to see surgery period. you would think the point you made would be true that parents would restrict the diet of this child. to do it mechanically is problematic and the only reason they're doing it is the kid has sleep apnea and stopped breathing and any time and is related to is weak but he could stop breathing altogether. is a big ethical dilemma. i don't want surgery on a kid like this. why can't you restrict the food that is going, literally putting a band around this. the food can't get in. stuart: some people who are jus

what's interesting is the ecb meets on thursday and arguably american ceos are doing what the ecb has qe as a result of buying so many of the assets. it's not just vodafone or nokia. bridgepoint announced a buy in austria. the money keeps coming across the atlantic. the big one is nokia with this big short squeeze as a result of the deal done with microsoft. you see we're off the highs. we were at 50% as people who were short the stock were forced to rush to buy that back. it's been a great short. it was originally over 20% of the stock was outstanding and on loan. now it's just 12% but obviously a lot of people caught on the wrong side of that. the immediate question for nokia is where will it put its cash pile? and you see these network equipmentmakers have surged on expectations they could be taken over. and vodafone very much in the spotlight. that stock is down partly because fund managers that hold vodafone, if they hang onto the stock will be physically given verizon stock and they won't be able to hold that so some tempted to buy at the moment. let me mention we're three weeks

. >>> bank of england and ecb are stating pat on the key decisions today.lenty more with simon and the close later on. the road map today begins with the jobs data. unemployment up while weekly jobless claims fall again. >> the smartwatch competition has started with both samsung and qualcomm unveiling their first wearable devices. we will have both on the show. >>> yahoo! rolling out the new logo for the first time since 2009. and symbolic of many recent changes of the company under the new ceo marissa mayer. >> as if that wasn't enough, jcpenney is talking martha stewart's home goods line before a judge even decides the outcome of the three-way licensing battle with macy's. and speaking of three-ways, bk, brian. >> thank you. it's good to be here. i see everybody else was off. >> yes. that time of year again. >>> markets are digesting all of this morning's data ahead of the jobs report tomorrow from the labor department. let's expand the discussion and bring in dan greenhouse with btig and scott, senior equity strategist with wells fargo advisers. guys, g

seems to be developing consensus -- >> i learned initially over the weekend, a former member of the ecbmade that same point. if you say you're going to act, you have to act. >> it's like obama and his red line. it's the same kind of problem. >> so the most they could do would defer to october. but what would that be even if they did that? >> they don't want to do october because there's no press conference. i was trying to figure out why he couldn't just have his -- if the head of the fomc wants to have one, he could have is one. >> you'd be there. >> but they apparent don't want to do october. but i can any postponement looks like a negative comment. >> yields, we hit 3% up on fri, which was that 25-month high. will the fact of it, if it's 10 billion and the fact of it actually make everybody relax a little bit? because, you know, we've been waiting for this for so long, i sort of feel like fantastic, okay, we can now deal with this and move on. >> and who who knows what the market will do in a given hour or a day. i think the market would be -- i think that wouldn't away surprise and

then the ecb stepped in with the announcement it would do anything, what it takes to save the eurozonefaltering. and since then we have entered a period of calm. but the underlying problems, the imbalances, low competitiveness of some of the european union can countries, they're not resolved and that has to be the task for the next year. >> talking about central banks, a lot of people in the united states are thinking that the fed's tapering as well will have a debt effect here on the eurozone and as well germany. do you think it comes across the big pond? >> i think the most important issue is what happens in europe itself, and the eurozone itself. of course central banking is always a tight balancing act, delicate balancing act. and the loose policy, monetary policy, quantitative easing policy we have seen in the world in the last years has certainly saved the day, but it takes the world in new risks and for that reason, the european central bank has to be resolved from -- relieved from its role as lender of last resort because monetary policy cannot save the fiscal problems that lie

something of welcome news to the ecb, which, of course, meets this week as well. we have also been hearing from the imf this morning and saying germany could do more for domestic investment and to reduce the imbalances. we have been talking about loan balances as part of the cause of the global financial crisis and the imf making that point again. so we'll keep our eyes on that. meanwhile, as far as equities are concerned, they're weaker this morning. more on global market watch, but just take a quick look at where we stand over an hour into the trading session today. you'll see we are lower on the basis. we have got these composites out with syria. xetra dax down .1%. ftse mib down 1%. sonny kapour is with us this morning. reaction, first of all, we are in an economic recovery mode, a little bit, for europe. it was better than where we have been. is anything here to really get your teeth into though, do you think? >> i think first it was kind of hard to sink even lower than we were. so -- >> exactly, yeah. >> put in perspective that we are starting from a really,

i think there is still the risk that the ecb maintains and will have to maintain a relatively dovisho justify some degree of rejoicing that the eurozone economic isn't getting worse. so i think the spread argument will move in favor of the dollar. and i think also some of those peripheral strategies which we've been ignoring, while we've been in aggregate seeing pressure points in portugal, concerned about the dutch housing market, these aggregated issues will start to come back before. i think once we've gone beyond in issue of markets being primarily fixated which is tapering, once we understand the tapering dynamics, then i think we can perhaps focus on some of the other external risk factors, unof those has been europe because it's been essentially sidelined partly because germany had to make sure that the eurozone problem wasn't an issue during the summer because they wanted to make sure the alternative didn't get above that 5% threshold this sunday. >> dollar/yen, the dollar is clearly unable to sustain anything above 100 at the moment. is that going to change? >> well, if it i

mining -- a lot of the royalties exchanged for resources and timber harvesting -- ecb's big fires inalifornia -- a lot of that goes -- you see these big fires in california -- a lot of that goes to kate-12 education. no is not an answer. people on the east coast really do not understand what the western states have to manage. we spend a lot of resources maintaining those roads and our costs comparative to everyone's involvement. host: arizona and western issues do you agree with that guest: -- with that? guest: i agree, and i'm happy to have paul on natural resources. we were both there after the yarnell hill fire. homes were still smoldering. we know how important it is to address those issues. we both support the forest restoration initiative which is a job creator and protects communities from wildfires. guest: if you take for example, the largest arizona fire on record, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars putting the fire out, lost $2.5 billion of assets. guest: if you take for example, the largest arizona fire on record, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars putting the

royaltiesa lot of the exchanged for resources and timber harvesting -- ecb's big fires in californiaa lot of that goes -- you see these big fires in california -- a lot of that goes to kate-12 education. no is not an answer. reallyon the east coast do not understand what the western states have to manage. we spend a lot of resources maintaining those roads and our costs comparative to everyone's involvement. arizona and western issues -- do you agree with that guest: -- with that? agree, and i'm happy to have paul on natural resources. there after the yarnell hill fire. were still smoldering. we know how important it is to address those issues. forest support the restoration initiative which is a job creator and protects communities from wildfires. guest: if you take for example, the largest arizona fire on record, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars putting the fire out, lost $2.5 billion of assets. -- of the spotted i'll spotted owl population burned up. is not one reason it the ground is because of government bureaucracy. think about all of the benefits that come from a healt

jpmorgan suggesting there will be further injections from the ecb -- easing if you look -- the beginningpoint that actually while we're at record levels here in the united states, if you have a look at a long track of europe versus the united states, they are just in europe at five-year highs. they're not at the record highs that you're seeing here. and one more, silvio berlusconi, of course, yesterday, gave the very aggressive attack on the italian judges who have conviktdconviktd -- convicted him of fraud. here's what he had to say in his release. "i am innocent, i am absolutely innocent." in response today, the prime minister of italy has said he will not allow -- he will not allow his coalition government to become what he called a punching ball by silvio berlusconi, so the coalition continues, as berlusconi tries to reinvigorate with a new party down the line. >> wow, we think our government's got problems. that's an interesting story. thank you very much. >>> let's get a check on energy and commodities. sharon epperson at the imx. >> it's the post-fed prefrenzy. they've been up sin

the first, the export control and related border security assistance, and it goes by the rm ecbs, is run by the state department. the second is h.m.a., which includes stockpile conventional munitions assistance, intended to assist in the disposal, demilitarization, security and management of explosive stockpiles. which is run by the department of defense. now, according to the state department, the u.s. has contributed over $2 billion to reduce the harmful effects of illicit, indiscriminantly used conventional weapons through conventional weapons destruction program which includes the h.m.a. in other words, the united states actually backs its words with money. and investment. and we have made that attempt throughout the whole world. listen, our arms export control system is the gold standard of the world. we are not agreed with our gold. we are willing to share our practical knowledge with nation states that are serious about arms export controls. let us not fall for the fool's gold of a treaty that truly overpromises and underdelivers. mr. speaker, i would like to express my gratit