Welcome to countdown. I am mark barton. Here in london. Also coming up on todays show if you beat me beat you . You have to give it back. I mean, you are pretty good. You think . I realize you are a legend, but ready . Go Stephanie Ruhle takes on the fastest man in the world, usain bolt. Hask Prime Minister samaras a Second Chance to rally among lawmakers in the choice of president. Thatnap general election could see the end of austerity and up party take power. It is triggering volatility in the market. The benchmark stock down over 12 . Investors are weighing the risk of the greek austerity and getting voted out of the government. Elliott gotkine in athens for round one. Good morning. Have you booked your ticket for round three . Not yet, mark. Ism suggesting that samaras man electedget his for president. He still needs to hundred votes out of the 300 lawmakers in parliament. He only got 160. He only requires 180 out of 300 votes and he has a fighting chance of getting his man ushered into the president ial palace. Not for lack of trying, he went toNational Television and lawmakers the prospect of broadening his coalition if they president. S man as he offered to bring back general elections from mid2016 if they vote for his candidate. There have been allegations that the government has been trying to bribe politicians to get them to vote for their man. A location that the government vehemently denies. Mark, i know students of around , donten it takes place you . The opposite of what you think it might be. Support,ithhold their i am here and they do not base it and they will shout out the name itself if they want to give the government their support for the candidate. And thats exactly what i said. Greece is a country that sparked the crisis. If there are early elections, could it complicate some solutions that the ecb might step forward . It could, mark. There is speculation that the central bank may do quantitative easing, printing money to buy government bonds in a bid to reduce borrowing costs. It do not have a limit when comes to greece. What if snap general elections are called and samaras goals to power and makes good on his promises to repay the debt it owes to the European Central bank and the ecb doesnt, what would greece default potentially . They European Central bank is left Holding Greek bonds which are not being repaid, then it is not going to be seen as a decent job. At the same time, you cannot go ahead with quantitative easing and leave greece out in case it might be an issue at hand they will get back to buy financial markets. We saw greek stocks hit after the announcement by the Prime Minister that the president ial elections would be brought forward. And they were doing pretty well this year and now they are the worst performing stock market in the world after portugal and russia. Mark . X, we will see you later. Elliott gotkine in tel aviv. [no audio] oil is irrelevant. Memberrabia and, the oil said crude could drop to 20 a barrel and it would not push opec to touch the output target. The biggest producers that are not going to give up the market share despite the plunge in crude prices in the last six months. Is not the only major player taking a stance or admitting to declining prices for lets bring in ryan chilcote. European titans also playing a role in the story. Bignteresting, we saw the three. Bp, shell, their outlook cut by s p overnight. A sickly because their cash flow going for him not just this year andin 2015 as well getting their cash flow cut not just this year but in 2015 as well. Why are they european producers as opposed to u. S. , they also had their outlook cut and we could explore. The reason is the dividend payouts in europe are that much larger and further constrains their Balance Sheets and this, claimants. Naimi only speaks in five or six word sentences so we made a big analysis out of what he said there. Said to like opec is keep the course under saudi pressure and allow the oil to fall and we saw a little bit of that, a little spike in the oil price for a day or two. But nonetheless, it was like it will hold or where it is or get lower. That makes things tough. Ago on itsn week upstream business and they are cutting costs and going diversification process, which is a euphemism for laying people off. Theres only so much and they can cut at this point and thats going to be an issue going forward. The ruble touched almost 80 two the dollar and at that point, all sorts of predictions. A week later, up. Lessened in devaluation, taking them to a new low of 82 the ruble. Starting at 35 to the dollar. 55. Then bring it back to they were as low as 59 year to date. 41 butruble has fallen it looks so much better than it did a week ago. Part of the reason, we saw that reside in the oil price. Part of that is we have these exporters that just met with the government and did not get in the official notes. We know the discussion is you should really be taking your heart currency revenue that they get when they sell their oil and gas and the other commodities four dollars and turn them into rubles. They have been helping out presumably by buying get up. And china helping out. China is the new imf. Who wouldve thought so. Beenally, the chinese have talking up the prospect of helping up the russians. They already have a currency swap with russia. It has been there since october. N, it is borrow in the russian assistance that they will not get from the west. The political will would not be there for russia it might not structurally makes sense. For china possibly, it does. They want to be a big country power and they wanted that kind of diplomacy. The chinese president has talked about that. Yua ton be a reserve currency and it doesnt help to engender among other service providers. At this point, it is just talk but worth pointing out and done the same kind of deal they used it to us as argentina at help. Venezuela this year. These kinds of countries that cannot get help from the imf. It is definitely interesting and the confidence that the chinese have and doing a deal with the russians to help the russians and reflected in the support easy for the ruble the last couple of days. X. See you thanks. North koreas Internet Access was cut off for several hours. The countrys connection is patchy at best but went dark after suffering problems and access was finally restored, this is kim jong on him among the first to emerge on the website of the party newspaper. The blackout followed the well of acai cyberattacks on Sony Pictures and president obamas vow to respond. You can join the conversation on twitter. Check in on my twitter page. North korea is among of the top trending subjects today as is holidays, peyton manning, he plays american football i think. As stories you want to hear about. Markbartontv. Greek politics are concerned for some. Samaras is rallying his troops in order to avoid that general election. Volatile voting is leading to volatility in the market. We will talk when we return. Stay with us. Two billionaire brothers at the top of the most valuable real estate, he spent five years in jail. At 10. 5 billion dollars. He was one of five men convicted in the biggest ever corruption trial. Rosalind chin joins us. Good morning. Hi. Lets look at some of the pieces in the case because it can be, ken. The two brothers who ran the second most valuable Property Company was found to corrupt hongd to kongs number two official. You can see pictures there. He was the chief secretary. It is the second highest position in government. It is something comparable to the Vice President or Prime Minister. Away orf executive gets is away, the chief minister steps in, such a high position. It was high profile in hong kong and gathered a lot of public interest. These are the two men. Thomas kwok was found guilty of conspiring to pay hui 1. 1 million u. S. Dollars to get favorable properties. He has been sentenced to five years in jail. Was found guilty of five out of a charges include conspiracy to accept money in bribes during his time as chief secretary. And later as a member of the government advisory board. Thomas, these are both men in their 60s. Both facing even five years in jail is a lot of time for these men. This is what the judge also said at summing up the case. The judge said thomas sentencing is difficult when one is dealing with minimal or not young but committing serious offenses. For that, he gave them the sentences. A of the charges they face maximum of seven years. Each of the charges they face are a maximum of seven years. Family and the kwok a friend of hui were also convicted. For one and four for another. Was acquitted of all of the charges against him. Rosalind change in hong kong. Greek lawmakers are casting ballots in the second vote to control the head of state. Is trying to rally support for his choice in order to avoid a snap general election in europes most indebted state. What does the trauma mean for marcus . I am joined by the chief current strategist. What does the drama mean . We are kind of expecting a the bigote, samaras, one is december 29. I think most people have referendum that we would end up with a general election at some point other than the new year. What we see now is a countdown to that trauma. I suspect most people are higher expectations. The other thing is here we are, prechristmas and markets are relatively speaking, investors are probably clinton down for the Christmas Period and not taking it more seriously. How does the greece election for the third vote . How does it complicate what to the ecb is trying to achieve . Investors might start getting jittery about the greek elections and pushing yields of cost the periphery. Make it more difficult. Theres already the debate within the ecb about their portioning of risk among certain more risky nations expected to take on greater degrees of risk. Here we have greece. And could fight against all of the issues that have been raised over the last two or three years, austerity, said that. That makes it that much more difficult. Hefairness, lets say theoretically get in, willing really be a case they will punch wholesale against all of this austerity measures . I do not know. Harder make it that much the First Quarter of the year with this huge debate about how qe they want to renegotiate public debt and that is on their agenda of items to achieve. One of the things that strikes me about all of this is that european nations, far more prepared for this than they were in 2011 and 2012. In particular, you could argue that with this cyprus prices now gone, almost a dry rail for an exit from the eu. Maybe it is if push came to shove and grease really wants out, they could say if you want to go, go. I do not think they will. It means that the eurozone, the rest, is in a far stronger position to deal than they were several years ago. What does that mean for 2015 . Were almost at a twoyear low. How low can they euro go next year . I think we end up at about 110. [indiscernible] the fed continues its high rates. The complicating factor in the First Quarter and exactly the point we just raised. Thece makes that harder for ecb to put in place quantitative easing. Does it mean we have to push it back . Do we expect it to be implemented . I do not. Mr. Schrock he said it was quite clear. He said we are not going to do the 22nd. Said wasr. Draghi quite clear. It could be we are in implementing it in the beginning of the second quarter. Thank you. Simon derrick. Welcome back. The chief current see strategist, simon derrick. Winner, wills the it be the winner in 2015 . Is when soend up policy divergence story becoming more clear. We have the u. S. Relatively and every body fighting against inflation. Think we have to be slightly cautious about the dollar at least the pace and timing area the deflation story doesnt matter there as much as it does elsewhere. Willning Commodity Prices take some of the pressure off. Nevertheless, what became pretty clear over the last few weeks and the fed, the oil prices they put more money in consumers pockets. As a result, they will continue down the Monetary Policy. I think that will be the story. And theyll slowing Inflation Bank ofan it deter that england for raising rates with cpi inflation touching 1 in the ast i think youre absolutely right, mark. One of the key stories this year has said peoples changing perceptions about what the bank has to do. We out in the bank wouldve already done it by now, there is a really sweet chance of later next year at the best before the bank hikes experience we have this inflationary pressures. All of those things will determine the bank. On thedoes it play out basis, the bloomberg correlation . It is up 5 . Down 6 against the dollar. How does sterling fair with the election as well . Factorreal complicating that election is too close to call. Straightforward. That also raises the prospect that we could end up with an election to a referendum on the eu membership in 2017. You look at the polling and it makes it very difficult to call. One in five chance in the next two years we could have a vote in the u. K. Their votes in favor of leaving the eu. That said, moderate expectations about Monetary Policy and i think what are the poor performers especially in the earlier part of next week. Roble, half the height of the crisis passed . I think so but it doesnt mean it cannot weaken further. We got oil prices. I suspected no. I can imagine that over the course of a month if Oil Price Trend lower and i think they will. Simon derrick, have a good christmas. Up, north korea was temporarily without Internet Service yesterday. The question remains was it a retaliationiberate from the countries involved in the hack attack against sony . We will have the latest developments. You can always follow me on twitter and tell me what you think of the show. What stores are you following today . markbartontv stay with us. You watching countdown. The u. S. Reports today on gdp and durable goods. Durable goodsnd will be increasing. There is your dollaryen up to 3. 7 . Gdp, the biggest rise in the Third Quarter up from the previous estimate of 3. 9 . Greek Prime Minister will make his second attempt to raise support from lawmakers for his choice of president. Reports of 200 and 300 lawmakers samaras fails again today there will be a third and final vote. Korea begin experiencing intermittent problems accessing the internet yesterday before the whole network was cut off. China started an investigation into allegations that north korea carried out a cyber attack on Sony Pictures. Died at the age of 70. He had been receiving treatment for lung cancer. British pioneer of the blues boom in the 1960s and is remembered by many of his performance of with a little 1969from my friends, in lets get more north korea, caroline is with us. This is not normal disruption. Beit does that appeared to according to certain key experts. As you said close to 10 hours that north korea was offline and they said it isnt normal, they hadnt seen anything like this before. We spoke to other networks and they said, if you look at it it looks like it was relatively simple. Distributed denial of service attack. It is a type of cyber attack. He basically flied internet with loads ofvers traffic and it brings it down temporarily. Saying these experts are it is unlikely that this is the reprisal that the United States has been saying. Just a couple of days ago the accused north korea of being behind the sony attacks. Many are saying that this north korea going offline would be a bit schoolboy of the u. S. To do because any hacker could do it for 200. And you are annoyed you attack it. Wreak also not going to that much havoc on north koreas cyber attack potential. Theyre still saying were not to do with sony and if you punish us will come back harder. They were quoted as saying they will come back 1000 times greater if they were punished. Will we understand their cyber attacking is done from other outposts outside north korea. Is theycan understand have patchy internet. It only has four official Networks Connecting on few computers to the internet. Wondered 52,000 152,000straight has networks. We get excited about whether or not he had to do with the u. S. The u. S. Asked china to investigate whether they were involved . They are. China had been approached by the United States to ask them for help because all of the telecoms and networks run via china. There the equipment maker for north korea. Few want to see what north korea has been up to potentially china is a big way to go about it. That is with the sony attacks seems to have been routed by. They said we will help the u. S. Investigate overall. I think whats funny or is that back in may there was really tension between the u. S. And china. The u. S. Accusing military chinese of stealing secretive data from companies and now sony has to go back to them saying would you actually help us out . It would be a great precedent for the two superpowers to be working together. Time to look at who made money and who lost money. Is tom us from singapore met calm. What is the big theme . For us it is the disparity between chinese billionaires and russian billionaires. If you look at the worlds 200 richest people they have done well. Within that 200 your 10 or 11 chinese billionaires and they are alone worth below 50 billion and you take the russian billionaires they are down 40 billion. Chinese the continued economic stories and jack markell and in with russias investment into ukraine and the oil price more recently they are really struggling. Who made the most money this year . The man at the moment, jack markell alibabas ipo one of the pots of the year and his personal fortune has risen 26 billion this year alone. Worlds 17th the richest man. Riser overe biggest Warren Buffett. Who lost the most . Across the pacific, sheldon adelson. The founder of sands. The macau casinos are having a tough time youre in china is cropping down on corruption and what happens is there is left less revenue. Billion, but. 7 dont feel too sorry he still has about 28 billion. Thank you a lot. Join us on twitter and