u.s. economy. it's not good news because it's not just politics it's dysfunctional politics so whichever party puts forward a proposal you don't get the normal give and take where your proposal iterates to something that's good instead you get total paralysis in the world that i'm describing policymakers have to be doing the right thing and right now even if even if they were willing to do the right thing they couldn't get it through congress in the united states so the political dysfunctionality is an issue and of course let's not also forget the whisks who would have thought who would have thought that the politicians in washington last summer could familiar with a default on the biggest bond market in the world and of course that contributed to the downgrade of the united states from its aaa so the politics is certainly not helping right now and i'm just curious because you've been in this game a long time mohamed back years ago you were at the eye and in washington and you've been doing this fo

u.s. economy. the federal reserve finished a meeting this week and said it would keep interest rates low until 2014. the fesd committee said the economy is expanding moderately and it sees slow global growth. that helped to push the markets up on wednesday. the dow reached an eight-month high and the nasdaq nearing a six month peak as well. a huge week for earning in technology. apple blasted expectations, surpassing estimates by 30%. netflix beat as well. yahoo was in line with estimates. among industrials, boeing beat expectations. caterpillar crushed estimate and 3m beat as well. joining me more on the markets and investing around the world is jes staley and mary callahan erdoes. good to see you both. thank you for joining us. >> hi, maria. >> i feel like walking around davos, meeting people in panels all i hear about is the european debt crisis. this is the wild card in terms of investment community. are you worried? >> you have to have a good degree of concern. the structural challenge of the u

economy? >> is shows the u.s. is healing, but there is this rift coming from europe. everything in the world is tied to europe and there is no escaping that. will start with numbers from europe singing the economy there, unemployment is rising. there is no way the struggling economies of europe will be able to recover and deal with budget problems while their economies are falling apart. if they get budget problems and economic problems, that will spark the financial crisis and hit the u.s. just like it did in the prior two years. if anyone thinks this is the start of a new era for the u.s. economy has to stop and think a little bit more. >> just as i was starting to get optimistic. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> you are watching bbc world news america. still to come -- one orchestra is still getting in tune, but to hear them, you have to go behind prison bars. hungary's center-right government is defending its constitution in the face of criticism it erodes democracy. there are signs that the government in budapest may be prepared to renegotiate some or

u.s. economy is showing signs of picking up but just how is that translating into employment growth? we look at what's expected. >>> making new inroads into india, ford's allen moulally. >>> caution has crept in before the week is out. european markets are marginally out, asian markets are marginally down. futures are flat. the predicted number of new jobs is around about 150,000. many say that is better but charles still not good enough. >> no. i think that's very much going to be what is dominating

u.s. economy is a main driver of growth for japan's economy, as we know. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that update. now as he said, japanese appliance maker, nec, says it will cut 10,000 jobs globally as it forecasts a full year loss. that's about 10% of the total work force. nec says the company's business results for the fiscal year through march will plunge to show a loss of about $1.3 billion. the previous estimate was a profit of $193 million. the company expects a loss because sales suffered in the aftermath of the recent thai floods forcing local plant to shut down. sluggish demand for mobile phones also a factor. nec president endo said on thursday the planned job cuts include about 5,000 nec corporation employees and 5,000 at affiliated firms and sub contractors. endo went onto say the company had no option but to cut jobs. >> translator: we were hit hard by the floods in thailand, the march disaster and also the european debt crisis. we may face extreme difficulties if we don't take action now. >> nec is not alone in the electronics industry i

u.s. economy that will determine its outcome are what happens in the euro zone and whether or not the u.s. congress can agree on some short term solutions for the u.s. economy i thought this was quite interesting because although yes the eurozone economy very much weighs on the united states i've heard from italian economists for example that year and the u.s. they're much more pessimistic about europe and maybe part of that is coming from the fact that it is an easy scapegoat for u.s. politicians to say oh what's going on in the u.s. is dependent on europe when in reality the u.s. has some major problems of its own a major debt overhang both private and. the state has been very active in trying to restate the economy but unaffected unaffected does bar high unemployment more than sixty percent for people that either don't have work or want more work you know these are some real issues there euro zone has nothing to do it and a congress that is bitterly divided in an election year is not likely to pass much so some real concerns that aren't being addressed here laura lister world news headl

u.s. economy to recover. that's what the federal reserve said today, wrapping its two-day policy meeting. policymakers said they would keep interest rates near zero for at least two more years. tom, the fed hopes super-low rates will make it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow money and then spend it boosting growth. >> tom: susie, this timetable is much longer than investors expected. the fed was expected to start raising rates by mid 2013, but a quick look at the fed's economic outlook explains what's behind the change in plans. the central bank described economic growth in the coming months as modest. unemployment as still high and inflation subdued. >> susie: also today, the fed made history by releasing the forecasts of its key policymakers, showing that only a handful want to raise interest rates quickly and most prefer to wait until 2014 or longer. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: for the first time, chairman ben bernanke and his colleagues at the federal reserve laid out their long- goals

u.s. economy and trying to provide some level of certainty in terms of providing stimulus for the economy through its communications when there's so much uncertainty and just, you know, a lot of lies and things going on in the political spectrum that i don't even want to address. >> you know, diane, can i just mention something about this. we had an editorial in our paper called the zero decade. we've had close to zero interest rates by the fed now for five, six, almost eight to ten years. and this idea that we can keep stimulating this economy with a free flow of money and record low interest rates, i'm just not so sure, diane, it's a strategy that has worked very well. this has been a lousy decade for growth with the fed holding those rates down. >> let me interrupt you. >> hang on. it's a good point because i don't know -- diane, i want you to answer this, but i'm not sure the fed is saying they can stimulate any further. we're at zero. >> right. >> i think all they're saying is we're not going up. what's your answer to that, diane. >> actually no, i don't think that's true at all. i r

economy? >> is shows the u.s. is healing, but there is this rift coming from europe. everything in the world is tied to europe and there is no escaping that. will start with numbers from europe singing the economy there, unemployment is rising. there is no way the struggling economies of europe will be able to recover and deal with budget problems while their economies are falling apart. if they get budget problems and economic problems, that will spark the financial crisis and hit the u.s. just like it did in the prior two years. if anyone thinks this is the start of a new era for the u.s. economy has to stop and think a little bit more. >> just as i was starting to get optimistic. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> you are watching bbc world news america. still to come -- one orchestra is still getting in tune, but to hear them, you have to go behind prison bars. hungary's center-right government is defending its constitution in the face of criticism it erodes democracy. there are signs that the government in budapest may be prepared to renegotiate some or

there's a school of thought that suggests the global economy is doing better than we think. china and the u.s. are proving resilient to europe's problems. and so traders are expecting renewed demand in the world's two top economies. but another school of thought argues we're in the midst of a bubble. speculators have been driving up the price of oil and eventually it will crash. now, i think that the economic fundamentals really can't justify oil prices at their current levels. the real driver of high oil is not the stuff you find this the business section of the newspaper. the demand for oil in india or china. it's on the front pages, global politics. you see, traders worry about risk. and the biggest risk to oil supplies is the threat of war in the persian gulf. meanwhile in nigeria, mass protests are raising worry about the fuel supply from there. venezuela is in a slow-motion collapse because of chavez's mismanagement. there have also been protests in russia, the world's top oil producer. and remember, the fallout of the arab spring. libya's oil production in 2011 was severely curtailed.

u.s. economy? are you buying u.s. stocks? >> larry, first of all, as far as the u.s. economy, there is an election in november, as you probably know. and every time there's an election, the government spends as much money as it can to get votes. and the central bank prints as much money. so this year, the economy is going to look better than it does normally. because they're pumping all this money out to fool everybody. you should be worrying about 2013, 2014. now, they tried it in 2008, it didn't work in 2008. but i suspect it will make things look okay for a while. as far as the zero interest rate policy, larry, it's a disaster for most people in the world. you're destroying the whole class of people in america who save and invest, and if you destroy your savings class, you really build up huge problems for the future. >> jimmy, is the zero interest rate policy, which has gone on way too long, way too long, as you suggest, is that going to damage the dollar? and is that dollar damage going to hurt the stock market? >> well, i own the u.s. dollar. eventually, yes, lar

u.s. economy to what's happening over in the eurozone? >> well, i think the asia is far more resilient than anyone because they have the growth. people want to invest in that growth. from the u.s. point of view as long as we're only focused on the trade aspect, i think the u.s. economy is fairly resilient. exports have added to economic growth in the united states the last two years as one of the positive factors going forward. i think the financial is the more concern -- the greater concern, christine, because we don't know what the linkages are. it almost goes back to 2007-2008. we don't know who is tied in with whom and who owes the money. while we do know the french banks or the portuguese banks are highly tied to the greek situation, the french are tied to the italian situation, it's that third level of interrelationships that are tricky. >> yeah, a really good point. thank you to silvia wadhwa for her report and john silvia at wells fargo as our guest host who will stay with us and given us plenty more insight. coming up later on the

u.s. economy. unemployment drops to 83-year low. the african national congress begins a weekend of celebration to mark 100 years since its foundation. hello again. a hot air balloon has crushed in new zealand, killing all 11 people on board. flames 30 feet high were sticking out of the balloon. the accident was near wellington happened in bright conditions with little land. duncan kennedy reports. >> they woke up to news of the tragedy. an early morning crash that took 11 lives. the balloon plunge down in flames after the pilot had appeared to be trying to gain height. >> i was driving down the road. i saw a hot air balloon literally on fire on one side. the wicker basket was on fire. i saw something holding it down. it was 50 meters in the air. the whole basket started to go up in flames. i was pretty shocked. >> the five couples on board came from the wellington area. the weather and wind had been favorable. the pilots had more than 1000 hours commercial experience. >> 11 people have died. this is a tragedy. >> crash investigators

u.s. economy. don't think bain stands out as an especially bad member of that industry, but that industry is doing stuff that is good for corporate bottom lines, but not terribly good for workers. the main point is that romney is saying i should be president because i know how to create jobs, and he actually does know how to make a lot of money in private equity, which is not at all the same thing as creating jobs. it's not all the same thing as what's involved in running macroeconomic policy. the main point is not that he was an especially evil private equity investor. we don't think so. it's that that has basically zero relationship to what he would have to do as president, and it's an industry that is a somewhat mixed -- the industry has arguably not been one of the things that -- whose overall impact has been positive on america. >> let's regard the big issue, which is going forward what the economy is going to look like and what the debate is going to be. paul, you had a column and a very stri

u.s. economy. speaking at the world economic forum, he said the u.s. is expected to do well, despite the global economic downturn. >> i think the conventional view of the u.s. now is that we are growing between 2% and 3%. i think that is a realistic outcome for the united states economy as long as we see a little more progress in europe and as long as we do not see a lot of risk come from iran and the oil front. >> growth rates like that are something the troubled eurozone can only dream of at the moment. as head of the european central bank, mario draghi is one of the people trying to change the situation in europe. he said there is no rapid end to the crisis in sight, but the eurozone is making astounding progress. >> if we look at the progress about the fiscal compact, this treaty, three months ago, this was not even a question to ask. countries would never release any sovereignty on their fiscal policy. >> his only comment on the situation in greece on friday was a terse "no comment." >> it has been a strong week on european exchanges, but things t

u.s. economy. the federal reserve bank is keeping interest rates exceptionally low in order to provide enough cash flow. no president has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8% since the 1940s. obama also needs to reduce the country's debt. he wants to increase tax revenue from high-income earners and cut spending on defense and health insurance. but he will need cooperation from the republican party, which also has its eye on the election. without cross-party support, the president will find it tough to implement effective economic policies. >>> a traditional japanese product on the ropes is going modern to survive. two innovators, a businessman and artisan have brought their new product to a showroom of a tokyo department store, and as we see in this report, the customers are pretty dazzled. >> a huge tapestry adorns a tokyo department store. the tapestry is made of traditional paper. this work was designed to help people see its high quality craftsmanship. the project was organized b

u.s. economy, what else is expected for the remainder of the week? >> we have key weekly jobless claims numbers later today and as you were mentioning there, also tomorrow will be a key focus on fourth quarter gdp to see how fast the u.s. economy was growing late last year. >> still some key events for investors to watch out for. >> definitely, a lot of the asian indexes closed this week for chinese lunar new year, a lot of market direction has been coming from the u.s., not only from economic data but also from earnings. for now, the nikkei and topix slightly mixed this thursday morning. back to you. >> all right, looks like the nikkei and topix are in negative territory. ramin from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> looking now at the movements in the european government bond market, the price of the portuguese hit a ten-year low. the price climbed to the 15% level at one point, selling pressure increased on portugal's sovereign debt. the country received a bailout package last year. meanwhile, the ten-year bond yield of italy traded at the lower 6% lev

u.s. economy. still, at least one analyst is keen on the sector. >> airline stocks have been very weak since the summer because of the uncertainty in the economy and fuel prices. we've had a rally in the past couple of days simply because fourth-quarter results have been so good. we could still have a small pullback in the wintertime, but it's not too early to be buying these stocks. >> reporter: the headwinds will no doubt continue for the u.s. airline industry this year, but, it sounds like they'll finally be competing with some tailwinds, too. suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," la guardia airport, queens, new york. >> susie: ben baldanza is the c.e.o. at discount airline spirit airlines. welcome the program. >> thank you very much, tom. >> tom: unlike the legacy carriers cutting seat, cutting capacity you added 10% capacity in the last quarter despite rising jet fuel prices k that continue? >> we think it can and the amazing secret is low fares, so with. >> tom: so with that in mind how fu

u.s. economy. the federal reserve bank is keeping interest rates exceptionally low in order to provide enough cash flow. no president has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8% since the 1940s. obama also needs to reduce the country's debt. he wants to increase tax revenue from high-income earners and cut spending on defense and health insurance. but he will need cooperation from the republican party, which also has its eye on the election. without cross-party support, the president will find it tough to implement effective economic policies. >>> a traditional japanese product on the ropes is going modern to survive. two innovators, a businessman and artisan have brought their new product to a showroom of a tokyo department store, and as we see in this report, the customers are pretty dazzled. >> a huge tapestry adorns a tokyo department store. the tapestry is made of traditional pape this work was designed to help people see its high quality craftsmanship. the project was organized by

u.s.-- rose 2.8% between october and december. but many economists were expecting 3%. >> tom: while clearly not a red hot economy by any stretch of the imagination, there are concerns over whether the u.s. can keep up even this tepid growth rate. erika miller reports from new york. >> reporter: if you want to know what's in store for the economy, it helps to come to this store. eneslow in manhattan does not just sell shoes, it makes them in a workshop downstairs. when the economy is doing well, shoppers splurge. >> when things are good, they're going to want that second color or they are going to want something for the other part of their lifestyle that they didn't have a direct need. >> reporter: but that's not happening these days: >> they are buying to need, not to want or desire. that's what i'm seeing. >> reporter: that means the 15,000 shoes in the back of the store aren't moving quickly out the door. when companies start building up inventories, it can be a negative sign for the economy. the more merchandise there is in the stockroom, the less need there is to place new orders. and if the trend is widespread, it can force f

u.s. economy produces in an entire year. long-term projections show the debt will continue to outpace the economy. >> well, shares jumped on rumors bigger companies might purchase the san jose company. otherwise, the markets have ignored good news. >> good morning to you. you know you'd expect more on the markets this morning but we're just not moving. a lot of that is europe. we've got great news about the economy in america on friday. it's being offset by the crisis overseas. remember, europe is america's biggest trading partner. you saw the heads of france and germany, they're getting together today to talk about the framework to bail those countries out. lots of concern over europe. closer to home, mayor jean quan will try posting to her fan page on facebook again. months after she quit due to the facebook users' racist and sexist comments about oakland's first female asian mayor. quan's staff said they could no longer manage the page because they were buried under comments we can't show you on tv. the page said, over the

u.s. economy. the nikkei average closed at 8,560, up 104 points or 1.24% in the last trading session of 2011. replaced across the board following overnight gains on wall street. the market lifted by a strong u.s. manufacturing data for december released on tuesday. market sources say, however, that the advance in tokyo was capped. many investors sidelined partly due to a rise against the dollar. >>> now public reactions on the nikkei's rise on the first trading day of the year. >> translator: i don't think share prices will rise, because of the strong yen. but personally, i do hope this year will be a better one than last. >> translator: i want the momentum to carry on and push the index up to 10,000. i also want to see the european debt crisis solved, and the japanese economy pick up. >>> an analyst at mitsubishi morgan stanley security shared his perspectives on the japanese economy. >> translator: we may see a further advance in the yen, and that will pressure company earnings. if the european c

u.s. economy.is tippic lay market mover. >>> and a gem that if you like it you can't put a ring on it. it is too big. this watermelon size emerald weighing 25 pounds is going up for auction in canada later this month. it is valued at $1.5 million. the stone is called god's gift. it came from a mine in brazil. at 57,000 krarts, the stone is believed to be the largest cut emerald in the world. thank you so much for joining me. next week i will be reporting from the the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. we will have a sense on what is happening on the global stage. have a great week, everybody. see you next weekend.