meeting in brussels today, european union finance ministers were pressuring greece and its creditors to support a deal to restructure that country's private sector debt. the move comes as the international monetary fund warned today more preparations are needed to protect against a greek default. it wants europe to double the size of its bailout funds, so any potential default can be contained. as international markets continue to twist and turn, u.s. investors are wondering if they should keep their money closer to home. suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: for many americans, dining in a french restaurant is the only foreign exposure they'll ever get. but even if you never travel abroad, investment pros say a big chunk of your stock portfolio should go international. that may be hard advice to swallow, given the recent pictures and headlines coming out of europe. on top of that, the poor performance of international stocks last year left a bad taste with many u.s. investors. the e.a.f.e. index shows foreign markets dropped 12% in 2011, compared to a 2% gain in u.s. stocks. many expe

. >>> the european union has begun legal procedures to urge hungary to review a new central bank law. the country's finances are worsening due to the european debt crisis. the hungarian parliament appr e approved a law last month that allows the government to appoint the vice president of the central bank. the legislation is part of prime minister viktor orban's reforms aimed at strengthening his government's grip on power. the european commission said on tuesday that the law violating eu regulations designed to protect the independence of central banks. the eu will take the case to europe's highest court. the european court of justice, if the hungarian government fails to comply. jose manuel barroso said the quicker the argument is resolved the better. >> we hoped that hungarian authorities will make the changes necessary to gain the respect. this has not been the case so far. therefore, we have decided to begin proceedings. >> barroso will meet orban in brussels next tuesday to try and reach a compromise. >>> tokyo stocks are moving in a narrow range this wednesday morning as investors stay wary of europe

lead story greek fury a plan for you controlled by the greeks greece's finance minister angrily rejected a plan by the european union to put in place a budget commissioner to oversee how the greeks prepare their next budget basically the e.u. is telling greece that if they want more bailout funds then they're going to have to let some unelected technocrat come in who has the power to veto tax and spending decisions made by the democratically elected greek government as in where you can't trust your guys during your own country so we'll do it for you now as the germans who proposed this plan the greek finance minister said no way arguing it would improperly forces country to choose between financial ins assistance and national dignity greece has been through a lot including watching their prime minister be forced out of office by european technocrats last year and be replaced by a bank but where they draw the line is giving up the right to set their own budget to determine their own priorities as a nation and not let some budget commissioner come in and tell them what they can do what they can't do unfortunately the

move to shore up its own finances in order to extend good clients to the european union it's going to stick in countries concerned not you can sense it or primarily to. the europeans have failed to put their house in order they have failed to come up with a plan which will or. deed we can see good system could have been in crisis with the banking sector on the one hand and all that member states of the you know if the eurozone so we have resorted to the idea that this is a tragedy and it's kind of the farcical situation where you have a situation where. listen to this italy is going to be extending the loans then max asked part of this deal by which the man will be supporting it if you this is why didn't we what we would come to but this is the result of two years of good night on the part of the european union. we have turned ourselves we europeans look just we geeks into the laughing stock of the world. but the people don't want austerity we've heard this voice like i said throughout last year it seems like it's going to continue into this year but greece needs foreign money so woul

discussions really made a lot of headlines there was a big debate of finance ministers and the economic and monetary affairs for the european union timothy geitner spoke about the u.s. economic outlook there were just some big news making debates and so the first time that i'm in the congress center to kind of get everybody's response to you know how they felt about the comment that came out on the euro zone and and that kind of thing they kind of look at you with a quizzical. what are you talking about you know i it's just i was the most important thing to people when i asked them what you know what is the value in davos for you it's all the same kind of thing larry summers says you can see more people in one day than you can in a year you know that it's easier for the networking i was a u.s. politician a congressman said the same thing it's the one place where you can see all these heavy hitters and network that's really it also c.e.o.'s i talk to c.e.o. bill gross of ideologues and said you know he's here he has this new idea this new business pre-fab houses for india and he gets there and starts networking about it and sudden

. >>> the european union is considering imposing sanctions on hungary for failing to take appropriate measures to cut its budget deficit. eu finance ministers agreed at a meeting that hungary has failed to comply with an eu recommendation to bring its deficit below 3% of gdp. regulations introduced last month allow the eu to punish member nations for violations of fiscal discipline. the eu is likely to suspend grants and impose other sanctions if hungary does not change its budget policy. hungarian finance minister gyorgy matolcsy expressed confidence that the country will be able to avoid sanctions although resolving the problems will take time. >>> time for a check on the market. on the tokyo foreign exchange the yen is lower against both the euro and the dollar this wednesday morning. the u.s. dollar currently trading at 77.81 to 82 yen while the euro is at 101.34 to 39 yen. investors are buying back the euro on eased concerns over negotiations between the greek government and financial institutions on debt reductions. buying momentum is carrying over to the dollar. tokyo stocks are higher due to the weakening yen. the nikkei i

get this, a shield, a shield around the world financed by the european union to the tune of four millionthin ten years may make an operational shield. bill: you buying this? >> well, it's a long shot but, hey, look, we have the problem of near-earth objects. thousands of killer asteroids that just drift right past the earth, and we're clueless. and also we're defenseless. we're sitting ducks. t sitting ducks -- bill: clueless and defenseless, and we're just at the mercy of whatever space throws our way. >> that's right. bill: knee mines near either object. and the europeans are leading the way. what is their idea? >> they've narrowed it down to three proposals, okay? one is a kinetic impacter that is simply bumping the asteroid with a rocket. second is a tractor beam straight out of star trek, and third, get this, third is a nuclear deflector using hydrogen warheads to simply blow the asteroid out of the way. bill: am i right to say that the russians are pushing that idea? >> you guessed it. be elle belle the russians -- bill: the russians want the nuke the asteroid. if you have, you bel

finance minister and the government spokesman. they called it the loss of financial sovereignty and greece's budget must remain its own responsibility. this country is already surviving on multibillion dollar bailouts from the european union and imf which have imposed strict conditions, public sector cut, tax rises. any more seizing of control, financial controls in brussels will go down badly. because austerity cuts are already in play here so deeply unpopular. if there were this idea of this german government to post some sort of external commissioner, i'm sure that would fan the flames of social unrest here. it must be said, though, that behind all of this is the wide-spread concern that greece is still not getting the fiscal house in order. the deficit is above target. privatizations are very slow here to try to raise money. so the german idea, i think, reveals a wider sense of exasperation at the slow pace of reform here. >> the fact of the matter is, though, that greece needs more money. in fact, there's a sort of deadline looming, isn't there? >> a tight deadline. mid march. greece has to pay 14.5 million euros in bond redemption. the country doesn't have. it needs the next of the bailout, the euros agreed to by th

finance minister over the weekend. he said greece needs parental supervision in the future for budgets. they want the european unionr how greece puts budgets together going forward. greece ruled it out as an option for fresh aid. if greece doesn't get fresh aid, it increases risk of default. it is a messy influence. >> this is like saying britney spears needs to be on a conservator ship. >> close, or lindsey lohan. >> what are the odds of that happening? >> at the end of the day i think it gets worked out. there's no up side for anybody to have greece fail and ultimately go back to its own currency. then you would have greece falling out of the european monetary system, it would be a big problem. it will be a fight, but at the end of the day, europe will prevail. >> the ripple effect at home. how does it impact the new fiscal year? >> causes market turbulence. every time you worry whether the crisis will intensify in europe, that travels across the pond and markets are hit like today. having said that, markets up a lot first part of this year, up since october, so it is not surprising we're seeing a correction in s