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Business Daily: The Euro crisis is back

31/03/2011

The Euro crisis is back

BBC World Service - Business Daily, The Euro crisis is back

As if the world didn't have enough crises, the European debt crisis is back.

The European debt crisis is back with a vengeance:  this week both Portugal and Greece had their credit ratings cut meanwhile the full extent of Ireland's banking sector debts is becoming clear.

Business Daily has a deliciously bizarre story today - how the Ghanaian government wants to decide what underpants Ghanaians wear - but we lead with the European debt crisis.

The series of uprisings across the Arab world and the Japanese earthquake and its consequences have - rightly - been getting the attention recently but through it all the European debt crisis simmering away in the background.  

The vast debts of Ireland's banking sector are in the spotlight today and this week both Portugal and Greece had their credit ratings cut.  Of the three only Portugal hasn't yet had a IMF bailout but the market seems to believe it is only a matter of time before it is forced to.  So how worried should we be? Justin Rowlatt interviews Luis Garicano, Professor of Economics and strategy at the London School of Economics.

We also explore the drinking culture in Chinese business.  You can learn a certain amount about prospective business partners in a formal meeting, you learn a lot more in an informal setting - particularly if you have a few beers.  In China drinking - sometimes very heavily - is a well established part of business life.  The Chinese have a particular taste for a strong spirit called Baijiu.  Justin Rowlatt discusses Baijiu culture in a Beijing bar with Chen Xiafeng, a correspondent with  China radio international, and Hu Ng, a social entrepreneur who runs her own business.   

And finally...A ban on the sale of second-hand underwear, handkerchiefs and mattresses came into force in Ghana in the past few weeks. Not surprisingly it has upset the stallholders who make a profit by selling on clothes and household items donated by Europeans. The Ghana Standards Board says the motive is all about hygiene - it wants to protect Ghanaians from the perils of dirty pants - but Business Daily's regular commentator Bright Simons believes an economic motive maybe at play..

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