london. saudi gadhafi, moammar gadhafi's son and eight official libyans officials were allowed entrance on sunday. field marshall mohammed hussein was scheduled to appear on sunday but his testimony was postponed until september 24th because he says he's dealing with last week's riots. mubarak is accused of ordering protesters shot during last winter's uprising. ♪ o say can you see the u.s. continues to mark ten years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on new york and washington. solemn ceremonies were held sunday at ground zero, the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania, honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed. while there were no attempted attacks on sunday, fighter jets were scrambled to escort two commercial airliners to their u.s. destinations. passengers on each flight were reported to be acting suspiciously but authorities determined they posed no threats. no arrests were made. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's business leader. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." the top stories this monday, september 12th, banking stocks in europe plunged as warning bells ring about a possible greek default. >> g8 leaders write a $38 billion check to help shore up arab spring nations. >> and pimco's ceo, mohammed el-erian says the u.s. risks recession if it doesn't press ahead with the billion dollar jobs plan. if investors didn't feel like getting out of bed to face another week, it would be understandable. divisions among european officials have opened up over how to contain it. the german government is also taking measures that look like preparations for a greek default. now, worries over the potential economic fallout hit stock markets around the world last week and the pain shows no signs of ending here in asia and also in europe this monday, nina. >> yes. speaking of europe, andrew, let's have a look at how the european markets are doing right now. we're about an hour into the trading session and it's a sea of red. some of the markets down, like zurich to the tune of 5% as we speak. heavy losses from germany, also to france. cac 40, that one down about 4.8%. investors have their eye firmly fixed on banking stocks following steep losses on friday with the major lenders with exposures to greece. a number listed in paris. that's one of the reasons this market is doing quite so badly this morning. there's more gloom in the banking sector, particularly here in the united kingdom. the ftse down 2.6% at the moment. lenders in britain are facing an annual bill of as much as $9.5 billion to comply with new rules and regulations designed to try and -- their high street retail operations from their investment banking activities. that is affecting share prices across the banking industry. we have the likes ever societe generale. in britain, one of the banks that could be affected by this report of this new banking regulation report that perhaps could be coming into effect by 2019 is hsbc, that company stock down to the tune of 6.6% in just the first hour of trading. andrew? >> okay. ni nina, asia pacific markets opening in a clear sell-off mode as well following the big losses in europe on friday. let's go to our asia business analyst, rami inocencio. >> markets red across the board. banks in particular were slammed, which brought the numbers down. the nikkei fell oust the gate and closed down 2.3%, this is nearly its lowest close in 2 1/2 years, since april 2009. exporters, too, including nissan, sony, panasonic, those slul ed 3% to 4%. the hang seng had a similar picture. they closed down about 2.4%. that hurt shipping, oil and banking stocks. the index closed down more than 4%. losses accelerating in the last two hours as you can see here. on the choi these mainland, the shanghai composite was closed for the midautumn festive holiday. imports hit a record high for august. the forecast was for a 21% jump right here. instead, china clocked in much more. that was actually a 30% jump. this number here implies strong and growing domestic demand even though the rest of the world appears to be slowing down. finally, back to those markets. in australia, the asx 200 closed down 3%. in fact, west pact was one of the big bank losers across the region. mitsubishi fell 3%, icbc, the biggest bank by market value fell nearly 4.8% and hsbc, the world ae world's third largest bank is down 3.7%. >> ramy, thanks very much for that, ramy inocencio. nina? >> andrew, u.s. stocks headed for significant declines when they start trading later on today. this is where the futures market stand in the premarket action. the nasdaq down to the tune of 1.5%. getting off lightly. take a look at the broader index, the s&p 500 down nearly 2% as we speak in terms of the futures. andrew? >> okay. as we mentioned before, tensions are running high in europe over the debt crisis. on friday, this man, the european central bank chief economist decided it was all too much. he resigned. he had been a critic of the bond program designed to support heavily indebted nations such as italy, spain and portugal and the most troubled one in all of the euro zone, gross. greece remains at the heart of the difficulties. joining us now is a senior trader at etx capital in london. minoj, first of all, when you see the share prices on the big european, particularly the french banks acting like they have been over the past couple of days, what is that telling you about the expectations in the market as far as a greek default is concerned? >> well, the expectations of the default start to increase, especially when you start to see some of these massive french banks that the share price is going lower and lower and the increasing possibility of a credit rating downgrade. it's not particular lit french banks because although they have a large amount of greek debt, this is also the other european banks that do have exposure there. it's the contagion effect across europe. you can find other major nations, banking system could also come under pressure. we're seeing that to some extent because the money markets seem to be going back to 2008 and freezing up again and credit seems to be coming tighter and tighter to get hold of. it's having a massive knock-on effect across europe. it's having a huge effect on the banking system and likewise, it's having a massive impact in the uk has well. >> just before we move on to the uk, if there is a greek default and this does seem to be heading into political circles as well after what we've been hearing from germany in recent days, if there is a greek default, what would the impact be on some of those most exposed banks, the french banks, the german banks and even some of the uk banks? >> it's difficult to quantify exactly what effect it would have. but markets tend to have a tendency to price in the very worst case scenario. you can picture in the short term, certainly, those banks would suffer from extreme sell-offs. we could see asset prices going back to levels of round about 2008 where they became increasingly depressed and there were in oversell territory and they bounce back once everything is resolved. the french banks have a large amount of exposure to greek sovereign debt. and until the issues have been resolved, it's likely those share prices, those banks will come under extreme pressure. >> now, on the uk side, we just had the vickers report out looking at the uk banks and -- retail operations by 2019. this report has been long awaited. did you see any surprises in this or was it pretty much as expected? >> it was pretty much as expected. but i think there is a positive in that the vickers report did extend the talk about deadline, the deadline we were looking at was 2015. they've extended out to 2019 which gives the banks more leeway in order to recapitalize and restructure their investment operations from the retail division as well. it particularly affects barclays and rbs because they have big investment banking sides. they'll have to capitalize those sides of the business as well as the retail banking business. under normal market conditions you'd probably be looking to invest in these banks. it does draw a line under the current issues. given the way the mark set at the moment and could continue over the next few weeks or so, it's probably a secretarier that you're probably avoiding. >> there's nothing normal going on in the banker sector at the moment. manoj with atx capital, thank you. nina? andrew, it could be a very ugly day for another bank and for employees of bank of america. reports say that this company's planning to ax about a sixth of its total work force in the united states. let me show you exactly how much that amounts to, no less than 0,000 jobs at this company. a spokesman for the bank wouldn't immediately confirm the reports in "the wall street journal" and the "los angeles times." those reports say that b of a has announced that it will be closing about 10% of its branches in the next few hours. brian monaghan is expected to speak at an investor conference that kicks off at 9:00 a.m. in new york this monday. we'll take a short break. when we come back, we want to stick with greece because it is such a key topic for financial markets around the world. as we know, greece is on the ropes financially but many greeks are on the barricades as the government still sticks to its guns in the fight over austerity. we'll take a look at its latest, some would say, desperate attempt to avoid a default. just ahead. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. who need imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. that's the share price -- the gold price. you can see down 1 $.75 an ounce. that would surprise many people given the turmoil we're seeing in the market and the reputation gold has taken lately. most investors seem to be taking cover in ten-year bonds. german, british and the u.s. bonds getting a boost today as gold falls out of favor. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." >> let's get back to greece which is sharply in focus as the markets look for signs of an imminent default. it seems exactly what the greek government is hoping to avoid as it struggles to keep rescue funds coming in from foreign lenders and fights to keep a lid on widespread unrest at home. in an effort to fill a budget gap, the greek government has announced a new property tax on sunday. it also said that it would be withholding a month's pay from all elected central and local government officials. those measures followed violent clashes between pless and protesters and protests on the streets of the capital, athens at week end. they haven't been enough to head off industrial action this monday as taxi drivers and rubbish collectors go on strike against the government's insistence on austerity. even as all that turmoil continues to engulf this country, george papandreou is about to keep this in check. let's go to athens for more on that. this situation just seems to be going from worse to worse every single day. do you get the feeling in athens where you are that people are eventually pricing in perhaps a default or departure from the europe eventually. >> there's certainly a lot of concern in athens as you mentioned before. we've just had additional measures. the measures were there because there was a shortfall in order for greece to meet the requirements, 2 billion shortfall for greece to meet its requirements towards creditors. that's an additional thing that just came up. we've heard measures announced at different stages. this is something that's concerning people here a lot. they're worrying that we don't know what's coming next. the government says it can make ends meet but can it really? the new shortfalls. we just heard that the recession will be higher than we expected, reaching 5.3%. so it's just a case of numbers not really adding up. and that's something that's bringing people to the street. it's creating a lot of insecurity here in athens. >> it must be quite difficult for the greek politicians at the moment, elinda. every time they come out with new tightening measures, the economy contracts just that little bit more and it becomes more difficult for them to pay back what they need to pay in the short term, let alone the long term. >> well, that's right. and that's what we've been seeing for a long time now. this is not new. and so new estimates have to be made. new negotiations, if you like, as you saw, we just had a second bailout plan arranged in the summer. of course that gives a lot of reason for concerns to politicians as well. but the prime minister, as we saw him speak over the weekend, said that, you know, his government is really determined to follow this course and to make sure that greece does stay within the euro zone. and all the actions of the government so far are showing exactly that. the government is not backing down in terms of the measures that it has said it will take. it has said no matter what the political cost, it will go ahead with them. and this is something that we expect to see partly because greece does not have very much leeway at this point. >> elinda, many thanks for that. andrew? nina, japan's new prime minister is moving quickly to replace one of his ministers after embarrassing comments quickly ended his already short cabinet tenure. straight ahead, just what money can buy the g8 in the middle east. we'll take a look at that. john defterios will be joining us with more. stay with us. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh let's check in on the price of crude oil at the moment. this is where the nymex crude for october delivery is standing at the moment, down nearly $2 on the barrel at a price of $85.25. this is "world business today," welcome back. japan's prime minister is waste nothing time naming a replacement for his economy trade and industry minister who quit this weekend in disgrace. he served a little more than one week on the job. he resigned amidst a firestorm of criticism for remarks he made during a visit to japan's crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. he referred to the evacuated communities around the plant as, quote, towns of death. he apologized as he announced his resignation. >> today i met prime minister noda. he's just accepted my proposal of the resignation from his post. i'm sorry he made people feel a sense of mistrust. i'm very sorry. >> cnn learned that the former government spokesman, yukio edano will take over for nado. the democracy movement in the middle east has been given a major financial boost. g8 and arab governments are now writing out a $38 billion check to help arab countries rebuild their political systems and create new jobs across the region. that's almost double what they originally pledge. now, that move is also helping shore up investor confidence in the region. john defterios is at cnn abu dhabi. this is obviously a considerable amount of money. is there a fear here that if these emerging democracies didn't get any funding like this that things could take a turn for the worse in the arab spring? >> i think that's a fair comment, andrew. there's been quite a bit of appreciate your building in the last week to ten days, especially those from tunisia and egypt. this was nearly double the amount promised by the g8 and arab countries and international institutions at the end of may in deville. some interesting points to add, in terms of insight. this is preventative medicine as well. it adds jordan and morocco. money for those going through political and economic reforms. of the roughly $38 billion on the table, a quarter from the golf arab states and half of the sum being provided by nine institutions. the quite interesting, the collective firm, the ebrd, the imf, the world bank and the opec fund, taking the oil money and putting into the region for stability. the final point here, this is completely tied to political and economic reforms. they'll be writing checks i should say over the next three years but it is completely linked to hurdles along the way for political and economic reforms as they go through and also as elections take place. >> it's interesting you mention elections. because there's a lot of uncertainty, of course, around elections. these more than certainly recent history. so i wonder if in these times of uncertainty that money will be able to replace lost money which is not going in because investors aren't confident? >> you know, there's two sides to this. the public money you're referring to, we have two interim governments in place in tunisia and egypt. it's fair to say in both those countries we've had a private sector investment strike. i sat down with the egyptian finance minister, the interim minister. he said this is not a surprise that investors at least right now, are station on the sidelines. >> the upridesing, changing political situation, not only in egypt but the whole region, the only safe position is --. of course we need immensely the financial support. it is helpful. it is important. but on the other hand we understand. >> they understand the situation right now that investors in the private sector were staying on the sidelines. it is a painful transition, andrew. these are the numbers for the first half of 2011. at the top line, a negative 3% growth rate in the first half of 2011. fiscal year 2012 according to the international monetary funned from july to june 2012 they're hoping for growth of 1.8% if tourism comes back into place and foreign direct investment from the private sector, 2012-2013, they think if those factors are in place we could see growth of 4% in egypt. egypt had $50 billion, andrew, between 2005 and 2010 in terms of fdi, which was considered very, very good. if you compare it to turkey, a population roughly the same size, turkey brought in better than $80 billion in that time frame. turkey is considered a model of political transition, economic transition that could work in egypt if they find stability in constitutional reform. >> absolutely. fdi, foreign direct investments. john defterios joining us live from cnn abu dhabi. nina? 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