replaced by an unelected technocrat who just happened to be a former vice-president of the european central bank. the one and only goal is to prevent a greece from going under and taking others with it a similar tactic was used on the third largest of the euro zone's economies italy after silvio berlusconi resigned from power and a new prime minister was also appointed switching governments is an old show the government that left had no chance to act to act much different from the one that is installed now people are you know passing by the. face meanwhile two key players of the e.u. germany and france meet again looking for ways to world cracks in the euro zone germany's already thrown billions at saving the euro it's no surprise that it wants more control over the rest of the pack which is why berlin peers are pushing to build the so-called fiscal compact meant to take the reins over sober and budget but it's an idea that's not going down well on germany streets if there is a threat that germany can gain certain positions and influence in the e.u. and it may not really have any right to be doi

mean one of things that you know i keep you have in your mind people it's the folks at the european central bank if they were awake you know their housing bubbles across europe not to say that you know government like greece has lots of problems no doubt about it but if they had been away from the european central bank we wouldn't be in the situation today but if you look at the german economy i mean this is an economy that you know by all measures in a lot of ways is thriving and so why not have the head of this country on the markle be sort of one of the ones out there cracking the whip well it's doing reasonably well it's not doing that great i mean it's still lost a lot of hair i don't like and others in the areas that are but i mean part of what they're doing doesn't make sense even from their own vantage point the sense that they're very happy to have these export surpluses with southern europe and then they get upset at the southern europeans for being indebted those go together you know it's sort of like if i'm you know lending you money all the time to buy my good. yes and then i'm upse

debate between france and germany, as you know, within the eurozone about the status of the european central bank and about its qualifications of last resort. now some of us in the world in general and within the european union consider that it was a reasonable debate. now the debate no longer exists because of strasburg, europe,

the stability of the european central bank and hence also the stability of the euro zone economy and all the people who are watching this closely are asking. will germany accept this wrote that this road is traveled by the european central bank or will there come a moment which can be weeks but which can also be many months ahead of us where the germans say this is enough we can go on in days there is there an idea about it say that how much longer can germany agree to shoulder so much of the burden of the of the eurozone i must have i never thought i wish we had more time the author of the book the end of the year i thanks so much for coming on arts. occupy protesters have stood up to the authorities in washington d.c. refusing to remove their camps from two parks despite threats of police action activists though are still preparing to resist with officers standing at the ready nearby and as artie's lives while explains occupiers still remain united in their beliefs. so we are here at macpherson square where protesters have been occupying the park since october throughout the demons

suddenly the markets wake up and think, this is all a kind of backdoor bailout through the european central bank to fragile european banks and things are more fragile than we thought? >> matt, if you look back to -- hark back to when standard & poor's cut the u.s. credit rating in august, and everybody was worried, and it was a nonevent. our interest rates that the government pays are actually lower than they were before the downgrade, which is counterintuitive. the stock market is probably higher or about the same. so i think the credit rating agencies can inflict short-term pain, but long-term other forces are more powerful. and again, yes, i do see these kind of continuing problems coming up. you know, italy may have a bad bond auction and that may cause the european central bank to try something else and step in. i see these sorts of things continuing to happen throughout 2012/2013, because the real problem, it isn't austerity and it isn't a lack of will in trying to get their deficits under control, it's that the private economies of countries like france and italy and spain are not suffici

the european central bank made available half of one trillion euros. these banks have money to buy bonds. experts say, credit where credit is due. investors are starting to believe spain is on track. listen to this. >> in contrast to other countries in the euro area, spain has made enormous strides. they introduced this that break into the constitution. it is a very rare occasion. of course, the austerity package is that you just mentioned. i would say that the market is taking -- >> in terms of the european central bank, the rate decision date -- nobody is expecting any change. as i mentioned, all the money they have pumped out. let's see where we go from here. >> some airlines. air asia pulling out of europe. >> the low-cost, long-haul. it is cutting its european routes. that means a six weekly flights to london and four weekly flights to paris. the ceo has also said that the new our mission tax imposed by the eu has compromised their ability to offer low fares. the whole business model -- many have tried to make it work. many have tried and many hav

one of the key issues is the european central bank. very good point, we have to listen to the fed. the european central bank has been very reluctant to actually step in and do the kinds of quantitative easing in the magnitude we saw the u.s. federal reserve do during our financial crisis and also there's not this sort of mechanism to recapitalize the banks. there's this reluctance to stick to the german model. they want to keep the fire on austerity, on these peripheral countries but can you go too far on that. there's a balance it seems it will actually take a crisis for the european central bank to do what is necessary to stabilize the situation. that's not exactly the best solution out there. >> the ecb is desperate not to be caught, a, in the politics of the situation. >> yes. >> which is really absolutely to the core of it. and b, the moral hazard argument. they don't want to have monetary financing of governments, this is effectively what being the lender of last resort will be. they continually hold out this carrot that says mak

earnings coming up and european central bank meeting thursday and bond auctions, little more for investors to grapple in the second week of january, 2012. back to you. >> ramin, thanks for that. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> nissan and daimler are cooperating to produce gasoline engines in the united states. the japanese and german automakers are making engines former said east benz and infinity vehicles. they announced it sunday. nissan spokesperson says the automaker will begin the daimler engines in 2014 at a plant in tennessee. the alliance of nissan and fran's renault established a capital tieup with daimler in 2010, allowing for use of the same parts and bodies. the latest venture would meet daimler's need for locally produced engines to increase car production in north america and will satisfy nissan's plan to use existing engine factory more effectively. automakers around the world are trying to use tie-up the to cut development costs and produce map parts more efficiently. germany's bmw agreed to supply diesel engines to toyota. >>> time for a recap of the lat

the european central bank as everyone has been talking about in december took a bold move and moved out a cannon to give liquidity to financial markets across europe to buy the politicians time to address the structural challenges. so are we concerned? yes. are we worried? much less than people were a couple of months ago. >> looking at the market activity in 2011, a lot of nervousness, whether it is europe, the u.n., even china the engine of growth for the world has slowed down. what are you hearing from toward? >> it is funny when you come to davos, you can get depressed with all of the things you hear about. but this year has more optimistic tone than in years past. it is remarkable it is only january 27th and we already have over 12 mandates that are over $100 million in global emerging markets n credit, commodities. people are moving from defense to offense. >> what's the worse-case scenario if we don't see a deal for greece come march? their a huge bond payment due march 22nd. is the date is d-day. will we see a dislocation in the market if greece defaults n your view? >> if you l

. >> the downgrade comes as the european central bank president, mario draghi, called on investors and regulators to rely less on ratings agencies. addressing a committee of the european parliament, he saw to minimize this latest round of downgrades. >> week as regulators, we should learn to do without ratings. or at least, we should learn to assess creditworthiness in a way in which ratings of credit agencies are one of the many components of our information, rather than expressing regrets or appreciation. i think what we should do is basically learn to either do without them or with them, but to a much more limited extent than we do today. this holds true primarily for regulators, but also for investors and banks. >> french president nicolas sarkozy also downplayed the significance of the ratings agencies. in his first public comments about the downgrade of his country's debt, he shrugged off the decision, saying it will not derail france's plans to reform its budget. he added pressure on s&p, stating that the attitude of ratings agencies still give france a aaa. >> the s&p downgrade

nice to see you tonight. >> it's great to be with you. >> tom: let me ask you-- if the european central bank is taking a "wyatt kuwait see" approach, does that mean the situation has become more stable in europe? >> i wouldn't say it's been more stable. i think we've seen some signs of improvement, only because of the volatility th a year ago, they were over $5, but prices have cratered with a at we saw, the backend of 2011. there's nobility stable about having a greek 10-year bond at 35% yield. clearly, there are still some very, very serious issues facing the europeans, and that has not not been resolved and it may take a long time. i think they want to see what the impact of those long-term funding that you mentioned, the three-year l.t.r.o., to really spread through the economy for another month or two before really making a big decision to say we're going to cut the base rate one more time. clearly i think rates are still heading lower. >> the l.t.r.o., long-term financing operation, finance and banker speak in europe. the worries we saw in the market last fall led to europe agreeing to

tomorrow, the european central bank meets for the first time this year amid that continent's growinginancial crisis. >> tom: hostess brands has filed for bankruptcy again. the maker of twinkies, ding dongs and wonder bread hopes to restructure nearly $1.5 billion in debt and renegotiate its labor contracts while in chapter 11 protection. if you're a fan, hostess will keep baking the snack cakes. the company emerged from bankruptcy just two years ago under its former name, interstate bakeries. a government watchdog says the taxman's budget is too small and his workload too great. the national taxpayer advocate says those conditions are making it tough for the internal revenue service to handle identity theft cases and fight fraud. the advocate would like to see the i.r.s.' $12 billion budget increased. the agency's workload jumped 20% last year to more than 226,000 cases, and the number of returns requiring a second look climbed 72% to over a million. >> tom: for the job market to continue improving, new companies will continue to have to be launched. many new jobs come from new compa

on the french european central bank troika the country needs one hundred thirty billion euros talk upthe shoals come to inspect there's a story see measures to reduce its massive does which face huge public opposition. as the main headlines up next also the spotlight with all good will stay with us. hello again to welcome to spotlight the interview show on our since i now you know of and today my guest in the studio is blair ruben. all the big cities around the globe experience common problems like traffic jams pollution.

the year and leave the euro zone knowledge if it doesn't get a second bailout from that and european central bank troika the country needs one hundred thirty billion euro as troika the shoals come to inspect athens austerity measures to reduce its massive debts which face huge public opposition. as the headlines up next is the time in this part of the wall for winter sports so next we follow snowboarders and skiers in the mountain challenges they face so stay tuned special report why to risk next on. the cool open in russia's north home to the q.b. need massive mountain range this is the wind. the snow.

is the new focus now they're saying they're adding growth on top of a sturdy measures the european central bank said it had some positive news that there's a bit of stability but then if you have some news like this investor credibility investor confidence that is again is impacted but one more thing that i'd like to bring up is that european leaders of a lot of indignation for credit ratings agencies especially say you bring about some bad news at a time when they're trying to get out of this euro zone crisis now some leaders have called credit ratings agencies as dangerous and of also in the past they've tried to limit the influence of s. and p. movies and other agencies in the financial markets now if you remember the credibility of such agencies have already come into question especially in two thousand and eight when they had fact some assets that were essentially considered junk and they didn't downgrade it until the very last moment so two sides here although it was expected that france will get this credit rating downgrade and although the credibility of the s. and p. and all the rating

prospects of the eurozone now if this comes on the back just yesterday on thursday when the european central bankactually said that the eurozone is in a more stable position now this is going to walk about certainly once again we're going back into a cycle of what's going to happen next creditors confidence certainly down and more meetings to come definitely next week and again more meetings with sarkozy and merkel this will certainly be play in the mix this s. and p. downgrade expected as it may be the actions will certainly be negative qualities to society of in brussels thanks very much indeed for that live update a leaked report by the cia and other intelligence agencies is painted a gloomy picture of the situation in afghanistan the document says the country is in stalemate despite u.s. army generals optimistic outlook it warns that attempts to improve security have been undermined by. local government and taliban attacks from neighboring pakistan to talk more on this joined by the defense analyst at the independent think tank brass tacks one of the problems according to this report is that

they're finding ways basically by having the european central bank buy everything to push it out intoomething bigger and worse down the road, raising interest rates. they have the capacity to have the european central bank buy stock, and that's happening indirectly, it's buying the debt. that can go on for a while. i think it will not be decisive in our election. >> probability for blow-up over -- >> i don't know if there will be a blowup in europe this year, but there will be a recession, and that will, in fact, hurt us, so it will be a drag on the u.s. economy. you know, it may not be enough. there are -- there is some sign of developing strength in the u.s. economy, but there's going to be -- i think it's going to be a fairly nasty recession in europe. i think people think it's going to be short and shallow. they're wrong. why would it be? i think the big blow up -- i'm not sure the big blow upwill happen because in the end, you know, the prospect of hanging concentrates the mind. the prospect of a collapse of their greatest initiative ever may make the europeans do what needs to b

we've got another interest rate decision in the back of this coming from the european central bank. it's expected to keep interest rates on hold at 1% when it meets thursday. those are the things that are weighing in the back of investors' minds. they haven't made up their mind today. >>> absolutely. a very similar picture, very similar sentiment, they haven't made their minds up in asia either. much like hong kong, clawing back, it was down more than 1%. it had losses late in the day. the hang seng was up by 1.5%. debt concerns are leading investor sentiment across here. we have the good jobless numbers from the u.s. on friday. jobs being created pretty much across the board. 200,000 new jobs for the month of december. certainly didn't help the u.s. market, wall street much on friday, but a bit of a delayed boost coming in asia today. shanghai, they're up. he is vowing to protect investor rights in china. some investment houses are talking about a 30% pop for the china markets this year. watch that space. now australia, interesting number here. down just a fraction, but we had some

of last month it passed legislation that will remove the power from the central bank to a point its deputy governor. the european commission has expressed concerns that the country's move will violate eu laws which uphold the independence of a central bank from its government. >> so we will use all our powers to make sure that hungary complies with the principles and the values and the rules of the european union, and i'm confident that we will achieve that. >> eu policymakers are to decide on what actions it will take by tuesday of next week. >>> tokyo share prices are rising on friday morning. concerns over the european debt crisis eased slightly following those smooth auctions of italian and spanish government bonds. the nikkei index now stands at 8499, just shy of that 8500 mark. currently up 1.3%. the broader topix is up by 1.2% currently at 735. sources say investors are placing buy orders on exporters to europe such as electronics and precision machinery makers. the euro is a little stronger in tokyo on friday morning as concerns over the regional debt crisis eased. the euro is now moving at 98.37 to 43.

there will be various complex mechanisms that will involve european central bank, some kind of bond insurance. i remain convinced germany will not let europe fall apart. if things get too dangerous germany will write the checks. it's trying to get the best deal it can, the most reforms from countries like greece and italy before it does write the checks. as for america, i'm still bullish. i think the american economy continues to have great strengths, consumers have rebuilt balance sheets somewhat, savings rate from 0% to 3%. corporations are flush with cash. yes, washington remains dysfunctional. but remember, there's a new dynamic at work even there. if congress does nothing, something it does very well, there are two sequestrations that take place. one cuts spending and one raises taxes. remember, bush tax cuts expire if congress does nothing. so all of a sudden there are pressures that can bring the budget deficit down. the deficit problem gets solved in a blunt, crude way but maybe that's how democracy works. it's easy to spot all the problems we face, but i think there are also some sil

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

. >> the european central bank benchmark lending rate remains at a record low of 1%. the ec be made a decision at its first policy -- the ecb made a decision as first policy meeting in frankfurt today. in a press conference after the meeting, the ecb president mario draghi said there were signs of stabilization. and the markets after rallying -- european blue chips gave up much of their gains after disappointing economic data in the united states was released. we have this from frankfurt. >> the well received options are in spain and italy led to a small rally here on the frankfurt floor. traders said that this might be the turning point in this debt crisis. definitely they are saying is easier for states like spain and italy to get fresh new money. the dax went up because of the news that came in here, but at the end of the session, its is it dragged down -- it is dragged down by wall street. u.s. unemployment is higher than expected. retail sales went down. the euro went up. >> we will have a closer look at thursday's numbers and germany's blue-chip dax finished up.

commercial banks bought the government bonds as ample funds from three year loans provided by the european central bank last month are being put to effective use. however, concerns over the european debt crisis remain. some investors expect the credit ratings for each eurozone nation may be downgraded. uncertainty remain in whether expansion in the european bailout fund will be enough to curb market jitters. >>> the european union warns hungry about penalties for failing to cut the budget deficit. they are stepping up pressure over00 gary's laws. a rift between the eu and hungary could cost a shift in financial aid. they are shifting policy making authority to the government. end of last month they passed legislation that will remove power from central bank to appoint the deputy governor. the european commission expressed concerns that the country's move will violate eu laws, which uphold the independence of essential bank from its government. >> so we will use all our powers to make sure that hungary come plies with the rules of the european union, and i am confident that we will achieve that. >> eu p

the only thing that stopped them going over the edge has been the european central bank finally, finallyng money the way that the fed did in the united states. you should its new president, mario, the ecb is behaving the way the fed did. >> why are we at a cliff's edge now? >> because that solved the liquidity problem, but the underlying problems of sole vensy of both banks and states, those have not been addressed, and nobody yet has an answer as ho to how these problems will be solved. where will the money come from? the jerpan taxpayer says not from me, and if it's not from the german taxpayer, i don't know where it comes from. >> one answer that people have floated myself included is that actually there is not enough money in europe to do a prob proper bail-out, and you need to get the imf involved, but for the imf to raise capital, it has to go to its main stake holders, that is the united states, but the principal soarings of new capital would, of course, have to be china. do you think the europeans would go for a solution like this, but do you think that the chinese are in the moo

the reforms the prime minister has brought forward have been the idea of restructuring the european central bank. also, the judiciary. the worry is -- is a possibility we can even get legal action from the european commission. the worry is that this is anti- democratic. the hon carian point of view, -- the hungarian point of view, they desperately need money from the european union because of the state of their budgets at the moment. they're asking for money. when the european commission tries to say you cannot do this, the hungarians have to jump to it. >> the money that they need from the imf really gives the international community, if we can put it in those terms, a tool with which to put pressure on them. the imf said last week from washington that they will not do anything without eu approval. the hon gary and government -- the hungarian government has to convince the eu and somehow win back its credibility within the eu. >> it does seem as though some sort of resolution will be found. >> thank you very much for the update. >> thank you. the five remaining contenders from the republicans t