13/08/2012 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines. Now it is time for World Business

Report. The headlines: The Olympic legacy,

we've had the medal count, now London begins the cost accounting.

The eurozone debt crisis hits Japan, causing growth to slow sharply.

It's back to reality for most London people. Heathrow has

developed a special Games at Terminal to deal with the thousands

of people returning home. The cost is likely to exceed $17 billion. We

look at the legacy for London 2012. It was a once in a Generation

showcase for the UK with three- quarters of taxpayers'' cash spent

on infrastructure, the legacy for a once contaminated corner of east

London is a transport system, Bearpark, and 11,000 proposed new

homes with health and educational facilities -- a park. In Athens,

rusting stadium show how the Olympic spirit of 2004 was lost

after the economy went from bad to worse.

The hope is that the 2012 effect will generate about �13.5 billion,

$20 billion worth of new business. Investors overseas will be reminded

of Britain's innovation and creativity. Certainly, the chief of

BP, told an Olympic Investment conference that he thinks Britain

can do it. As a business we have had many, many meetings. They might

not have otherwise been player. Chance happenings, discussions,

business ideas have been progressed. -- planned. Andrew Hammond says

Britain needs a long-term plan. you might have some short-term

growth before the Olympics and some short-term growth after, you really

have to come together, public, private and all stakeholders, so

you can mobilise and create, in this case, and economic Team GB

that will mirror the success of the athletes on the Olympic Park.

next few months might show if Britain can ride the crest of its

Olympic wave when its economy is still in a double-dip recession.

The effect of the eurozone debt crisis are rippling across the

globe. Japan is the latest economy to see its exports slowed sharply

as a result. Between April and June the Japanese economy expanded just

0.3%. That is much less than analysts expected. The country's

exporters were also hit by the strength of the yen, which makes

goods more expensive overseas. I enjoyed live now from Tokyo. What

is behind these figures? -- I am joined.

Sorry, I was having difficulties he ring you. As you said, it was a

slowdown. -- hearing. It was inevitable that growth would

slow down, but I think the most worrying sign is a slowdown in

exports. It is down from 3.4% all the way down to 1.2% in this

quarter. I guess you can blame Europe's debt crisis and the

slowdown in the Chinese economy for this. Of course there is the strong

Japanese yen we keep reporting, which makes Japanese products more

expensive overseas. Another worrying sign is that in the

private consumption sector, the Bank of Japan met last weekend it

held off from offering extra support because it said that the

domestic economy remains relatively strong. Today's figures have shown

that it might not be holding up as well as they had hoped. Of course,

last Friday, the government pushed through the sales tax from 5% -8 %

by 2014 and 10% in 2015. The immediate reaction from shoppers on

the street was that they will stop shopping. That will be the concern

that critics of this bill have. External forces are to blame.

Sluggish growth, the debt crisis, etc. What our policy makers inside

Japan planning to do? The Bank of Japan so far has refrained from

loosening monetary policy. You think we will begin to see more

stimulus? There's not much that the Central

Bank can do at this stage. Its interest rate has been near-zero

for a very long time. It has been pumping in a lot of money to the

market after the earthquake and tsunami last year. I guess part of

the reason that the growth was very strong in the first quarter it is

because of the government spending on the reconstruction from the

earthquake and tsunami. We are starting to see that warranting

down. There are some concerns that growth will be slowing down --

winding. Hundreds of passengers have been

stranded in Rome following the collapse of an Italian budget

airline. Wind Jet suspended all flights over the weekend after the

breakdown of takeover talks with another major airline. The

country's Aviation Authority has set up a crisis centre to help

stranded passengers at the beginning of the busiest holiday

week of the year. The new chairman of Barclays has

pledged to change the pay culture at the troubled bank. Sir David

Walker told the Sunday Telegraph he would review the entire business

and that he will begin his search for a new chief executive within

days. The former CEO, Bob Diamond resigned in the wake of the rate

rigging scandal. The world's richest countries are

planning an emergency meeting to discuss rising food prices. The

Financial Times says that senior G20 and UN officials are

considering their response after the worst you s drought in 50 years

has ruined crops and sent prices to record levels -- US.

Groupon Reports its burnings later. It is still trying to live up to

the height -- at the earnings. The great expectations that once

surrounded the wave of new technological listings has faded.

Are we expecting a take a bus to 2.0?

-- technological bust 2.0? Facebook's stock is down 42% since

going public in May. Pandora's shares are down 36%.

Asocial gaming firm's stock has slumped 17%.

There was so much excitement and potential around these stocks last

year. Now there seems to be more scepticism overall. Investors are

looking at these companies and thinking - OK, even though they

showed some initial growth, that trajectory will not continue.

The current drop in technology shares has brought back painful

memories of the infamous .com bubble of the late 1990s investors

through huge sums of money at untested start-ups. It might be

some consolation to hear that today's internet bust is unlikely

to be as serious as last time. I think you call the social media

situation at a bubble is almost an insult to a real bubble. You look

at the number of companies that went out in 1995 - thousands of

companies. So many of them were broken down to the point that where

they went out of business. Their stocks went down to 1% or 2% of

their previous highs. We are not seeing that here. Companies are

having to learn some expensive lessons. The internet provides new

firms the chance to grow and prosper remarkably fast. The