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Quest Means Business

Britain's Jobless Claims up by 37,000 in July; Kodak Stock Jumps 21 Percent

Aired August 17, 2011 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: In Britain people are losing their jobs. The Bank of England is loosing its course (ph), will the government loose its nerve on policy?

The power of the patent: Kodak has a flash of good luck.

And we have a smashing idea from Amazon's chief executive, that is all hot air.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.

Good evening.

Not working, but claiming. Here in the U.K. more than 37,000 people joined the que for jobless benefits in July. It is the biggest increase since May 2009. And economists say it is a sign that the U.K. economy is faltering. The U.K. unemployment rate now stands at 7.9 percent. There was a 0.1 percent rise on the previous quarter. That is lower than the United States. But still high for the U.K. And most of those made redundant in the past three months have been women. The number of unemployed women is the highest its been since 1988.

Job opportunities are disappearing. The number of vacancies is currently at its lowest level since November 2009. There has been no recovery in the labor markets since the financial crisis in 2008. Just look at how the unemployment numbers went up during the crisis. We had a very slight downturn when things looked as if they were picking up again. But this uptick is what people are seriously concerned about.

And when you look at that map, or that graph, you can see why one U.K. opposition lawmaker says the economy has flat-lined. U.K. policy makers and monetary makers are worried about the economy. The latest Bank of England minutes are out and they show that not a single member of the MPC, the Monetary Policy Committee, voted to raise rates. No one wanted to raise rates. And that is unusual. Because in previous meetings there have been the hawks that have been calling for higher rates. They have now given up the ghost of that.

The MPC debated also, they considered, more quantitative easing, money creation. Pretty much as the Federal Reserve did a week ago, the FOMC. However, like the FOMC, the MPC, the Monetary Policy Committee decided the case isn't strong enough yet.

One in four economists now think there will be a second round of QE in Britain. According to a Reuters poll tonight. Ross Walker is the chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Unemployment, MPC, what do the numbers tell us.

ROSS WALKER, CHIEF U.K. ECONOMIST, ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND: Well, it tells us that economic activity and job creation is still quite sluggish. The recovery is still quite fragile. And in terms of the recent data flow and the strains in financial markets; the sovereign debt crisis, in Europe and the U.S., all of this has combined to persuade the two Bank of England policy makers who had been voting for higher interest rates to back off from that. So we have a situation where I think it looks increasing like we are going to have this prolonged period of policy inertia from the Bank of England.

QUEST: Right, but you are sounding remarkable measured in your assessment of it. From where I'm sitting it seems much more like heading down, getting worse, and they had better do something before it becomes a double dip recession.

WALKER: Well, I suppose a lot of it depends on how you expected this period, as the U.K. economy comes out of recession to be. If you thought that we were going to rapidly bounce back to the sort of bumper growth rates, credit boom-fueled growth rates. Fiscal-loosening fueled growth rates, that we had through the naughties, then you are going to be sorely disappointed by the next few years. Given the balance sheet strains in the U.K. economy, the household sector debt levels, public sector debt levels, strains in the financial system, the fact that he U.K. economy has managed to muster some growth, and some job creation, it has been a bit more benign than it might have been.

QUEST: Are you concerned that a second recession, a double dip is now a real possibility. Now, and I'm thinking because you have had these terrible numbers from Germany on growth. France is stagnant. The U.S. has slowed down. All the major trading partners are slowing down. Do you think a double dip is now likely or possible.

WALKER: Well, if by a double dip you mean a formal, fall back into recession, two or more successive quarters of negative output, I think that can probably still be avoided. But the growth rates we are looking at will-against the benchmark of the late 1990s, or the mid-naughties, be disappointing. So for the U.K., you are looking this year for real growth of just over 1 percent, versus a long run average of around 2.25, 2.5, and maybe only a modest improvement in 2012.

So it is going to be a sluggish outlook, but I think the central case at the moment is still, that we will see ongoing growth. The risks of a faltering in the recovery have certainly increased. There is no doubt about that. The financial market strains, you can see feeding into more caution. You are perhaps getting hints that business new-orders activity is falling back, investment projects are being postponed.

And so for the U.K., I think the key issue is we know that the consumer cannot drive this recovery. Similarly fiscal consolidation has to continue. So we really have one or two motives for growth. One, is business investment, what the corporate sector is doing. Thus far the investment intention numbers look OK.

QUEST: Right.

WALKER: And we are also reliant on the trade picture. But the outlook has definitely darkened over the last three or four months, there is no doubt about that.

QUEST: And what is your forecast now for the first rise in U.K. base rates? When do you think it will happen now?

WALKER: Well, I think we are a long way off a rate rise. We obviously saw in the MPC minutes today, two of the hawks backing off from voting for rate rises. We have a flat Bank of England policy rate forecast right away through to the end of 2012. So we see no change in rates over the next 18 months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: So, you have the Bank of England, as you heard there, probably no rate, that seems to be the consensus, until the end of next year. You have the Fed, the FOMC saying short-term rates until 2013. And that is the situation as they stand. London's FTSE not surprisingly in the red. The DAX in Frankfurt, elsewhere, there is a little more positive, one can hardly say it was a barn burner of a session, but at least Paris and Zurich, beg your pardon, did show gains. Tuesday's meeting between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy did little to allay concerns. EADS led the gains on the report that the German government is looking to sell part of a major stake in the company. Shares are currently controlled by Dynelab (ph).

In New York, you know, my theory about this week, is it holding true.

(DESK BELL CHIMES)

I think it is going to be a relatively quiet week. Down 41 points. This is pretty much as we have been. It is late, or mid to late August, the first time maybe, people have maybe had to get away and rest a bit. So I think that is going to be an influencing factor all week.

When we come back in a moment, there is the new boom in property. No, not bricks and mortar, the intellectual stuff; who owns the ideas wins. And we'll tell you why companies are now worth a great deal more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: On Monday Google bid $12.5 billion for Motorola. And it set off a feeding frenzy of patents that has completely ignited the tech sector. The camera maker Kodak's star faded a long time ago. But over here in the library, you'll see, Kodak's share price has rocketed up, 21 percent today. Now admittedly at $2.59 that is hardly a huge gain; 21 percent is 50 odd cents or so. But this is the reason why. The shares are soaring because MDB Capital Group has told Bloomberg that Kodak's patent, forget that it makes the patents that Kodak have, may be worth $3 billion. And that is five times more than the company itself.

Everybody, it seems, ever since Nortel went bust, Google is buying Motorola, everybody wants patents. They are the hot commodity in intellectual property for one obvious reason. Because the technology companies are suing each other, for example, take for example Taiwan's HTC, upped its tit-for-tat lawsuit against Apple. It wants Apple's products, phones, tablets, even laptops and desktops. You have Samsung involved in litigation. They are all after patent protection, not only for themselves, but also so they can continue develop their products.

Google bought Motorola. Now at 12.5 million, I promise you, they did not pay that sort of money because they like Moto; a 623 percent premium on its shares. It was a protective move to protect Android operating system. And what Motorola has is lots of these, patents, like this. There are more than 24,000 of them, it is estimated, that Motorola has in its database. And Google wants to get its hands on them to make sure it has product in the future.

It is very intricate stuff, if you have seen what we are talking about. Let's talk more about it. Ilya Kazi is with me to talk more. He is an attorney at Mathys & Squire, which specializes in intellectual property.

You have seen the details. We just showed that. What is, do you believe, has now taken place in information technology?

ILYA KAZI, PATENT ATTORNEY, MATHYS & SQUIRE: Well, firstly you know that Google was beat to the post by Microsoft and Apple to by the Nortel portfolio. And they were left behind, they were playing catch up. A lot of these big players had big portfolios and they were quietly kept in the cupboards and no one really dusted them off and started a fight.

Now, Apple has thrown a few stones into the pond, HTC has thrown a few more. No one wants to be left there naked without anything to join into the battle.

QUEST: But why now?

KAZI: Well, because someone started the first-someone fired the first shot. So Apple has been under pressure, everyone's margins are under pressure. Patents are commercial tools. If your margins are squeezed and people are stealing your market, it is quite understandable that someone at the top says, well, we spent all this money on R&D, we've got all this protection, now can we use it please, to capture our market?

QUEST: But when you see a company like Kodak, which, you know, many people say Kodak is almost out of the game, but not. But rising 23 percent, on the strength of patents, as a patent attorney, does that surprise you?

KAZI: Not particularly. Kodak actually was responsible for one of the largest patent suits in history, over the Polaroid camera, some considerable time ago. And patents are very valuable. If you think about patents, OK? As you see a patent as a piece of paper, but if that happens to belong to your archrival competitor, and they are about to take you to court over it, it is very valuable. And suddenly it is, like anything, where there are two parties bidding for the same piece of property, whether it is real property, a house, or a patent, or a piece of intellectual real estate.

QUEST: OK, but this-so arguing over patents is nothing new. We have seen it autos, we have seen it in the Kodak, we have certainly seen it in the pharmaceuticals. But you would agree that this has certainly had a shot in the arm.

KAZI: Oh, yes.

QUEST: I mean, in terms of the significance of it.

KAZI: Oh, absolutely. And it is because the market is heating up. The economy, as you have said already, is not doing particularly well. People are looking at what weapons they've got.

QUEST: What would you advise, or what do you advise now? Because you have got these big behemoth companies that have got 10s of thousands of patents, most of them, maybe, not worth too much, but they will be nuggets of gold?

KAZI: Yes, I agree with that.

QUEST: What do you advise?

KAZI: Well, I think what is going to happen is the dust will settle, there will be a few skirmishes, cross licensing deals will be reached. And life will go on. I don't think life will end suddenly.

QUEST: Right, right. And when we look at these patents, I've just got a couple here. I mean, this is the patent, actually this is interesting. You are well familiar with these. Apparently, I'm told, this is the patent for the mobile virtual and augmented reality system, which means absolutely nothing to me. But it does mean something to somebody.

How detailed are these patents? And how detailed do they have to be to protect them, so that somebody doesn't just do a me-too, and says it is their own?

KAZI: It all depends. And I'm sorry not to give you a very straight answer.

QUEST: No, that's-

KAZI: But it all depends on the technology. If there is something straightforward and it is very easy to claim, it can be very simple. A lot of patents, if you think about a smart phone, compare it to the bricks of 20 years ago, there is a lot of very intricate technology that has gone into them. And necessarily, the differences in the tweaks and the nuances, are very detailed.

QUEST: Final question, and I think it is probably the most impossible question to ask you. But I'll do it. Are we moving into a situation in technology, do you think, where it is cheaper or easier to buy somebody else's patent rather than do the R&D, yourself?

KAZI: Oh, absolutely. Companies are bought for their R&D and their patent portfolio. If you think about how much it costs to do the R&D yourself, or buy the results of someone else's work, particularly in a falling economy, where share prices are depressed. That is why we have seen all these acquisitions lately. And I have clients who have bought people for their patent portfolio because it is cheaper than fighting with them. So, yes, I think, absolutely, it is not an impossible question.

QUEST: Ilya, many thanks indeed for joining us.

Now, as we continue our look-oppsi-daisy, oh, dear. Those phones have gone over. We have all done it. Brand new phones bite the dust. But one invention, which funnily enough, has just been patented, might save the day. This is the patent. It is literally this week, from Amazon's Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. He has applied for a patent. It is a new kind of safety device. A type of airbag that phones would be fitted with an accelerometer, which would detect falling, airbags would release. This is the patent that he has applied for. But it has only just been made public.

And before you think what a load of old nonsense on these phones, remember, Bezos did start Amazon.

Coming up after the break, surviving turbulence isn't the problem in this industry. The chief executive of the world's largest wind turbine maker is going green and he is making golden profits.

(DESK BELL CHIMES)

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: So we are in an age of austerity and yet the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer says governments are still investing in green energy. Vestas announced better-than-expected half year profits and interesting, and perhaps surprisingly, that positive outlook.

The shares 21 percent higher in Copenhagen. They are still off more than 40 percent for the year.

Vestas expects global electricity production, by wind, to grow 2 percent, and at least 10 percent by 2020. Is it all just hot air? Vestas' Chief Executive Ditlev Engel, joined me following on from losses in four of the past six quarters-four of the past six quarters. Well, I chided him, something is going right this year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DITLEV ENGEL, CEO, VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS: We had quite a busy first half 2011. And that obviously has improved the numbers considerably. But we also have to remember, and I'm sorry I have to say, that the last few times we have not been wrong, because we had a very bad first half 2010. Now fortunately, we are back, being very active in the first half, and we do expect to be quite busy in the second half.

QUEST: But what is growing the business? Is it that there are more orders coming in, or are you now able to process, and people are proceeding with plans you already had?

ENGEL: I think there are a lot of things happening here. First and foremost, the orders we need for the second half of 2011 are basically in place in order to get to our full expectations for 2011. So we have to execute them. Secondly, in the last few years Vestas has gone from being a European company to being a global company. So even with huge variations in currencies and all the other things happening in the world today, we are in the region, for the region, having local costs, being competitive in local markets.

QUEST: That is really important isn't it? Lowering the costs?

ENGEL: Yes, it is.

QUEST: But that also means you are bearing the brunt of the-unlike the aircraft manufacturers, who still buy (UNINTELLIGIBLE) dollars. You are selling in local markets?

ENGEL: That's right.

QUEST: So you are bearing the brunt. We've got a euro or a-or you trade in euros?

ENGEL: Euros.

QUEST: So, we've got a euro that is being buffeted by E Union and Eurozone issues, you'll get in trouble?

ENGEL: No, because if you look at the United States, for instance. We have been investing heavily in the U.S., the dollar, up and down, the dollar down, the only thing we have learned over the last few years about currencies, up and down, is the only thing we know is that we don't know. And therefore we have said we need to make sure we have natural hedge. One of the reasons, for instance, for that is we have just announced we are going to open new facilities in Brazil, and also again to counter balance these issues.

QUEST: Two of your core markets, Europe and the United States, North America?

ENGEL: Right.

QUEST: Both are slowing down.

ENGEL: Yes.

QUEST: You should be a worried man?

ENGEL: Well, if you look at the overall economy, I think you are right. But if you look at the competitiveness of Vestas products, if you look at the people we have in place, the manufacturing facilities in low- cost currencies, it actually means that Vestas' competitiveness has increased a lot, and therefore, we do believe that we are going to see also a nice order intake in the second half. But of course if the entire economy stops, we will be hit as well. But for the business that is out there, we still believe we are going to get a fair chunk of it.

QUEST: Has there been a shift, yet, do you think, in perception on wind turbines? And acceptance, yet. Whenever-I mean, there is still ferocious objection when major wind farms are proposed, noise, oh, you know all the arguments for and against. When do you think that might change?

ENGEL: I think it has changed. I think, you know, normally when you talk about wind, people talk about alternative energy. I think you should turn it around and say, what are the alternatives? And if you look at what is really at the table, because we need to have an energy transformation. And therefore I think wind is becoming mainstream. If you look at the customers that Vestas has today, it is some of the largest facilities in the world, which is integrated. So I think we have moved from being, let's say, an alternative industry, to become mainstream, and it is changing. But when it comes to the opposition, of course, I think, all major infrastructure projects are facing challenges. So it is up for us to really explain to people what the benefits are going green.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: The hot air of wind power.

Coming up next: Will Barack Obama be able to get turbines to power the U.S. economy? He sits down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer to talk about his plans to cut the budget and create jobs.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, good evening to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. This is CNN. And on this network the news always comes first.

(NEWSBREAK)

QUEST: Barack Obama is vowing to push for action to create new jobs. The president will announce just how he plans to do that, in a speech earlier next month. And if you look at the numbers, you can see exactly why he feels the need to do this.

This is the recession. That much we know. You then get some reasonably good job creation numbers and it continues. But back in February of this year, is the height of it. The U.S. was shedding jobs on year on. Now things are looking sunnier. We had a very bad May and June. But July, 117,000 jobs were created. The problem is that still falls short of the 125,000 jobs needed every month, just to keep up with a growing population.

Barack Obama is trying to get the public behind his plans to jump start job growth. He is on a Midwest bus tour, which is in Atkinson, Illinois. The president held a town hall meeting at a seed company's production facility, on the final day.

In an exclusive interview with our own Wolf Blitzer, President Obama set out the goals for a job-led growth US economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's some things that we've been talking about on this trip that we could do right away that are already pending before Congress.

We know that what we did in December by cutting the payroll tax so that the average family gets an extra $1,000 in their pocket makes a huge difference, not only for their purchasing power, but also businesses having more customers and being able to hire.

We've continued to renew tax breaks for businesses that are willing to move up investments that they're planning into 2011, and we'd like to renew some of those for 2012.

Trade deals with Korea and Panama and Colombia we know can create tens of thousands of jobs here in the United States.

So, there are a number of things that we've already got pending before Congress, and what I've been saying to crowds all across the country, and it's been getting a good reception is, what they want to see is Democrats and Republicans putting country before party and going ahead and taking action in order to move the economy forward as quickly as possible.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": But you've got something much more ambitious in mind for this September. There's been reports you want to create a new department of jobs, something along those lines, is that true?

OBAMA: You know, that is not true.

But what is true is that I think we missed an opportunity a month ago when we could have dealt with our debt and deficit in a serious, balanced way that would have avoided these huge gyrations in the financial markets, given businesses a lot of confidence that Washington had its fiscal house in order, and included in that, because of the savings that we'd be getting over the next 10, 20 years, more efforts on the front end to spur job creation.

And given that Congress failed to act, the grand bargain that I was trying to cut with John Boehner didn't happen, we're going to take one more run at Congress and we're going to say to them, look, here is a comprehensive approach that gets our debt and deficits under control and also accelerates job growth right now.

BLITZER: Is this an initiative you're going to give to the so-called super committee, or is this something separate from that?

OBAMA: Well, I hope the super committee takes its job seriously, and obviously there's an added sense of urgency given how anxious I think businesses and consumers are after the debacle surrounding the debt ceiling.

But my attitude is that I'm going to make my best case for where we need to go. We've made progress since the start of this recession back in 2008, it hasn't been fast enough, we've got to accelerate it, and there are two things that need to happen.

Number one, we've got to make sure that people have confidence we've got our fiscal house and order and that we're living within our means, eliminating programs that don't work.

Number two, there's some immediate things we can do around infrastructure, tax policy, that would make a difference in terms of people hiring right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Barack Obama talking to Wolf Blitzer. Joining me, now, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is Manpower Group's president for the Americas, Jonas Prising.

Jonas, the problem of getting that unemployment rate in the US down from 9.1 or 9.2 percent and creating those extra 125,000 jobs just to bring the level down, what's gone wrong?

JONAS PRISING, AMERICAS PRESIDENT, MANPOWER GROUP: Well, the short answer is demand. Employers today are so sophisticated that they will only hire into their organizations if they can see demand occurring. They don't hire in anticipation, they don't hire based on hope, they hire when they see demand.

And as you look back onto this very slow recovery, you have a consistent, slow jobs recovery as well. Just as in the UK as well as in Europe, you have growth, but it's just very slow.

QUEST: OK, but if I looked, then, at the economic numbers, it doesn't matter whether we talk about consumer confidence, which is at a 30-year low, consumer sentiment numbers from Michigan.

We can talk about the first quarter duty -- second quarter duty fee 0.8 tenths of a percent, retails, whichever number you want to take. The outlook for that employment cannot be regarded optimistically.

PRISING: I think that as we look ahead, we have to realize that we are on a path of a slow recovery. We are in economic purgatory. So, this will take a long time to work through. There are no simple solutions to this path.

And if you look back, really, the recovery and the recession associated -- of course, the recession and associated recovery really is a trend of less job recovery that occurred already ten -- for the last ten years.

Job growth over this last cycle was much, much slower than any other economic cycle that we have seen over the past 25 years. So, it has really come to the fore in this recession and recovery, but it was already a trend that had been established well before this recession.

QUEST: Do you think -- in the UK, we're at 7.2, 7.3 percent, in the US at 9.1 percent or 9.2 percent, in the euro zone, 7, 8 percent. Do you think we are going to have to adjust our thinking to accept higher levels of unemployment as being the norm?

In other words, you and I remember traditional view of full employment was 4 percent -- 6 percent, and 4 percent if you're really lucky, on a good year, you got down to 4 percent.

PRISING: I think that is exactly the issue that we will have to grapple with in the future. The danger is, and I think as time goes on, it is becoming increasingly more evident, is that some of these -- the effects on the job market, which are cyclical, are becoming structural.

QUEST: Right, but Jonas --

PRISING: So, it --

QUEST: Let me just interrupt, here.

PRISING: Sorry.

QUEST: Let me just interrupt you, there, but to -- just to counter that point, Germany, which came out of the recession and managed to lower unemployment dramatically by its fiscal -- by its export-led growth.

Now, we can't all do an export-led growth model. Somebody has to be the buyer, somebody has to be the seller. But Germany's proved it can be done.

PRISING: Germany has proven that it can be done, but Germany's approach to the recession is really an effect of a much longer-term view in Germany of what Germany's life or nation -- future as a nation should be.

So, their preeminence, for instance, and dominance around green jobs creation, which is proportionately significantly higher than any other company, maybe with the exception of China, was a policy that was started already 12, 15 years ago.

They decided as a nation, we need to become very good at green technologies, hence we will pay four to five times the market price for anybody who brings a green technology, an energy that is generated though green technology.

And now we are here, 15 years later, with certain sectors where Germany has a preeminent global position.

And that is the task that we as nations within, in particular, the developed world, will have to grapple with. How do we compete, not only within companies and with companies, but as nations in this increasingly global world where emerging markets are driving very rapid growth, both from a domestic market perspective, but also from an export perspective.

So, that is -- Germany is a very good example of structural change with a clear idea of how they wish the build their future as a nation.

QUEST: Jonas, we've -- you and I will talk more about this in the months ahead. Wonderful to have you on the program tonight, thank you very much for joining us from Milwaukee in Wisconsin.

Well, what would say about somebody who had a job in Nigeria, went to the World Bank, and then went back to the job in Nigeria. Ngozi Iweala is back at her old job and ready to make changes. We'll be talking to her next.

(BEGIN COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Good-bye Washington, hello Abuja. The former World Bank managing director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is starting her new job as Nigeria's finance minister today.

(RINGS BELL)

QUEST: It shouldn't be too daunting. It's a post she's held before. Transparency International's corruption perception index ranks Nigeria as the 43rd worst out of 178 countries surveyed. She has her work cut out for her.

In 2004, when Minister Iweala was doing her job for the first time around, she told me about her hands-on approach to tackling corruption.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA, NIGERIAN FINANCE MINISTER: Those people who are paying those bribes are part and parcel of the problem. And you know, that is what we are saying. Businesspeople should not engage in that, because there's a supply and a demand side of corruption.

If someone, they might say no, report them. To the minister of finance.

QUEST: So, are you saying to me that if somebody has been asked for a bribe or is the victim of corruption, they can write to you personally?

IWEALA: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The minister talking to me some years ago, six years go. Well, yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak again with Ngozi, and she told me corruption is still an issue that she'll be tackling now that she's back in the role, although some unpopular austerity measures are clearly going to be first on the minister's agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IWEALA: I don't think the job is about popularity. The president has also asked me to be coordinating minister for the economy, so we need to focus on getting macro economic stability, which means some fiscal restraint.

But we need above all to focus on creating jobs in Nigeria, and that means we need to diversify the economy, work on agriculture and other areas.

QUEST: All right, but as you look at that, has the president promised you support and a relatively free hand to implement the changes that you believe will be necessary?

IWEALA: The president has the political will to do these changes, and I think that since he asked me to come, I think he knows that I would not do that unless we are going to be able to implement the policies that we need to get the country to move forward.

He's very clear about his priorities. He wants to work on infrastructure, he wants to fight corruption, he wants to create jobs, and I think he will back me up and back the economic team up to do that.

QUEST: Let's talk about corruption. I wasn't going to raise it, but as you know, I -- but you've raised it. You and I have talked about this subject many times. Recently, I'm -- when I met you a few years ago in Lagos, you did have some strong views on this and the necessity for dealing with it.

As you go back, now, how are you going to bring good governance, or at least start the role of bringing good governance in?

IWEALA: Well, Richard, I'm so sorry I mentioned the C word.

(LAUGHTER)

IWEALA: But let us also say -- that Nigeria is not the only country where the C word or corruption is an issue.

But within our country, I think we need to create greater transparency in the way the government does business, to bring the Nigerian people in, into the way business is done much more, by giving them information. And I think that will be a very strong thrust.

And then, also to show that there will be no impunity. Above all, we need to use our finances in a very transparent and effective manner.

QUEST: A final question. You know, they often say, Minister, re- heated meals are never as good. You've had the job once. You're going back to it again. So, what do you hope that you'll achieve this time that you didn't manage to achieve last time?

IWEALA: Well, Richard, I don't think this is a re-heated meal. I think this is a meal served up with a very different flavor.

So let me make that clear. The job that I'm being asked to do is beyond that of finance minister. My actual title is Coordinator Minister for the Economy and Finance Minister.

And I think that first of all, the last time we left an unfinished agenda on key reforms in the economy. We needed to make the growth, which we had engendered, to create more jobs, more growth. And we are going to have to work on all of this in order to put Nigeria with the emerging market economies.

Nigeria is two-thirds of Africa -- West Africa's GDP, and more -- and ten percent of Africa's. So, what happens there matters for the whole continent. So, we'll certainly be working on areas that make a difference for the country and for the sub region as a whole.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: The new Nigerian finance minister, we'll be talking more to her in the months ahead. We wish her well in her job.

Pressure is growing on India's government to do more to stamp out rampant corruption. This man is the activist Anna Hazare, he's leading a campaign against kickbacks. The 74-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday after threatening to stage a public hunger strike in Delhi.

Thousands of his supporters are protesting outside the prison, others have demonstrated in Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore. The authorities say Hazare is now free to go, but he's refusing to leave jail until he's given permission to hold is rally.

Those protests have remained largely peaceful with Hazare advocating Gandhi-style passive resistance.

In western India, though, anti-government protests have taken a deadly turn, where farmers were voicing their anger over what they are saying is a government land grab as police opened fire. CNN's Sara Sidner has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In western India, cameras roll as a protest by farmers turns deadly. At least three protesters were shot and killed by police, and several others wounded.

Police say they were responding to an attack by protesters, who threw stones and fired a shot from a vehicle. It was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in an explosive fight over land rights.

This clash is over the government's plan to acquire farmers' land at a price set by the government for an important water pipeline.

Hundreds of miles away in northern India, a less dramatic but similar fight is playing out here. Farmers say the government is misusing what is known as the emergency clause, forcing citizens to sell their land at below-market rates for the public interest. The government has sold some of that land to developers for private projects worth millions.

"Our land should at least have been priced at 10,000 rupees a square meter, but what we got was just 800 rupees per square meter," farmer Surender Singh Nagar tells us, as he stands on a portion of his ancestral farmland that he had hoped to hand down to his children, but instead had to sell to the government.

On one side of his land is a public road. On the other, a private developer is making preparations for India's first ever Formula One race.

"We don't think any sporting event can be an emergency project. It's purely a private enterprise," he says.

In this case, farmers are threatening legal action and protests. We contacted the developer and the company had this to say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Buddh International Circuit, which will host India's first Formula One motor race on October 30, 2011, is progressing well, and our preparations are as per schedule."

SIDNER (on camera): As India continues to rev its economic engine and try and modernize, this fight over land keeps popping up all over the country, and so legislators are being forced to look at modernizing its 117-year-old land acquisition laws.

DILIP MODI, PRESIDENT, ASSOCHAM: The fact that we are a huge, young population --

SIDNER (voice-over): Even some of India's captains of industry agree it's time to change the land acquisition laws, partly because these kinds of clashes discourage foreign investment.

MODI: I think one of the things that we are facing recently as a challenge is consistency in policy. And I think that's worrying the most to investors looking at India.

SIDNER: The last thing anybody wants at a time that India is becoming a global economic power.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Greater Noida, India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: When we come back in a moment, the newest sound at your local independent music store. That's complaint. Record sellers explain why you won't find one major artist on the shelf.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: As if plummeting CD sales weren't enough to deal with, now independent record stores are facing a bigger, perhaps, challenge. From New York, Felicia Taylor looks at how an exclusive marketing deal with large retails is leaving small music shops out of the loop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's being called the most-anticipated album of the summer, the long-awaited collaboration from rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West, the deluxe version of "Watch the Throne" is now being sold exclusively at Best Buy and on Apple's iTunes, but not at independent record stores, like Other Music in New York City.

JOSH MADELL, OWNER, OTHER MUSIC: The indie stores are not going to get a chance to carry it as a new release.

TAYLOR: For independent record store owners, it's just the latest in a string of challenges in this time of slowing music sales. More than 20 stores nationwide have signed a letter to Jay-Z and Kanye West in protest, with the support of musicians Paul McCartney, the Foo Fighters, and others.

MADELL: Artists abandoning indie retail to me seems like it's shooting themselves in the foot.

TAYLOR: To be sure, Other Music caters to an eclectic customer base.

MADELL: Most -- this is all CDs of experimental, new music, psychedelia, some older punk.

Here's most of our vinyls, here, this is mostly new stuff.

TAYLOR: And to help differentiate itself from major retailers, owner Josh Madell offers customers something Best Buy and iTunes can't.

MADELL: You come into the store, and we have our favorite new releases, we've got these descriptions written up by staff members, this is the music that we're most excited about this week.

TAYLOR: Even so, new challenges are arising for indie stores, from the likes of online firms like Spotify and Rdio. For $10 a month, they let users stream unlimited amounts of music on computers, mobile phones, and iPods.

MADELL: If every music consumer in the world never had to spend more than $120 in a year on music, the economics of the industry would be very different than they are now, and I'm not sure where that will all shake out. Obviously, the music industry is shrinking for reasons just like this.

TAYLOR: Still, Madell is hopeful.

MADELL: For sure. People coming in her and shopping and it's the middle of the afternoon. We're not -- record stores are struggling, but they're not -- they're not giving up, and neither are music fans. And not everybody wants for music to be disposable files.

TAYLOR: Big rappers may favor big retailers, but for many New Yorkers, smaller music stores remain the top of the pops.

Felicia Taylor, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: I don't know how old my director thinks I am, but he's challenged me that I won't know the name Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Well, anyway, whether I know them or not, their record label did not return calls for comment on its marketing deal with Best Buy and iTunes, Jay-Z and Kanye West.

And look, I should imagine both of those artists are the sorts of people you'd find on Guillermo's mp3 player.

(LAUGHTER)

QUEST: Don't you chortle.

GUILLERMO ARDUINO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No! No, no!

QUEST: Well, what do you -- well, what sort of music do you listen to? Some --

ARDUINO: I'm going to tell you the truth. OK, ready? Fasten your seat belts. Classical.

QUEST: Oh, well, that is a surprise. All right, all right. So, that's shut me up. All right, the weather forecast, please. It's gone and -- listen, it's raining in London tonight, I can tell you that, and I'm --

ARDUINO: Come on.

QUEST: I think -- I think autumn's here.

ARDUINO: Light rain. It's not raining. We have some light rain. That's it.

Now, Friday and Saturday, we're going to have nice weather in London, compliments of QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, because we're working our connections with the weather gods and Friday and Saturday are going to be nice.

But then, before then on Thursday, Richard, we'll see some rain here moving into the midlands and into Ireland, Northern Ireland, too.

Now, if you have time, head to the Mediterranean Sea, because it's fine, some clouds there in Greece, that's about it. And towards the north, it's where the unstable weather conditions prevail, but it is not as bad as before. We can't complain.

Look at France, we're looking for some rain, we're hoping for some rain in Cannes, there, we'll get some storms, that's about it.

Now, no problems at airports. This, Madrid, maybe a slim chance because we don't see rain moving into Madrid, unfortunately, but no problems at airports. Vienna, Zurich, Copenhagen, Paris, London. Despite the clouds and eventually some rain showers or thunderstorms, no significant delays induced by weather.

The heat continues in China, especially look at these numbers. This is the average, 33 degrees for Chongqing, Naxi, Liangping, and we saw over 40 practically in all of them, except for Nanchong, right there on the threshold.

And that's the area of central east China, where the heat will continue. As an example, Chongqing, way above average for the next three days, be very careful if you're working or if you live in Chongqing.

We saw some rain and we see some thunderstorms in the vicinity of Shanghai, as we speak it's almost 3:00 in the morning in Shanghai. Hong Kong looking OK, so that pocket of high pressure, Richard, continues.

We saw a little rain in the Korean peninsula, now that rain is moving downwards into Japan. And of course, the rain that we're seeing and the thunder in Shanghai associated with the same system. Back to you, have a nice day.

QUEST: Guillermo, many thanks, indeed.

ARDUINO: Thank you.

QUEST: We'll have our Profitable Moment in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's Profitable Moment. You heard the numbers on UK unemployment, you know what's happening in the United States on growth, and you've seen Germany and France are stagnant. Economists agree, the developed world is in a dangerous economic territory.

And in some ways, even more so than during the Great Recession. At least then, there was G20 cooperation at the London Summit over what had to be done. Now it's a dilemma.

Some governments are wedded to austerity, like Spain and Greece, because they've got no other choice. Others, like the UK, out of principle.

But someone has to take action. President Obama said so to Wolf Blitzer, Christine Lagarde echos that in the FT.

Tackling deficits cannot undermine the recovery by jeopardizing fragile growth. The cycle must break, or the prophecy of double-dip will become a fully-fledged reality. That you can take to the bank.

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight, I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead --

(RINGS BELL)

QUEST: -- I hope it's profitable. "Piers" next.

END