Entire program – November 12, 2009

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Today on The World: What’s on the agenda for President Obama’s visit to China; Also, what underwear sales can tell us about the health of the economy; And a centuries-old Persian musical instrument gets an update.

Trade with China

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President Obama is visiting China this weekend amid a simmering trade dispute between the two economic power houses and a wide US trade deficit with China. Marco Werman talks with Zachary Karabell, author of “Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends On It”

The underwear economy

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These days, economists and analysts track just about everything to gauge how the economy is doing. Some analysts just focus on one product, such as cement, cardboard boxes, even men’s underwear sales. Can we really learn how the economy is doing by looking in our underwear drawers? The World’s Jason Margolis has the story.

Zimbabwe’s currency

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A year ago the economy of Zimbabwe was in free fall. Stores in the African nation were empty, and the economy ravaged by hyper-inflation. A new government of national unity has brought some stability: it phased out the worthless national currency, but that move has spawned new problems. Ish Mafundikwa reports from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. (photo: Ish Mafundikwa)

Samasource: “Microwork” for the developing world

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Samasource is a San Francisco based non-profit that matches businesses in the United States with people in the developing world who are looking for work in information technology. Marco Werman speaks with Leila Janah, the founder of Samasource, and Antoine Ngeleka, one of Samasource’s trainees living in Zambia.

Puppetoons

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Stop motion animation has been around a long time, but it goes in and out of fashion. The latest movie to use the technique — you know, where you shoot a frame of film, change all the models just a tiny bit, shoot another and so on — is Fantastic Mr. Fox. But we want go back to the very earliest days of this animation technique. Marco Werman has the story of George Pal, a Hungarian-born pioneer of stop-motion animation.

China’s secret jails

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The World’s Jeb Sharp has more on the story behind a Human Rights Watch report that details evidence of China’s so-called “black jails.” The report claims that citizens attempting to petition the government are often detained and abused in unofficial jails before being sent back to the provinces.

Russia’s plans for the future

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Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wants to transform Russia into a modern, democratic country. That was his message in today’s state-of-the-nation speech. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from the BBC’s Richard Galpin.

China awaits Obama visit

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Anchor Marco Werman checks in with Beijing correspondent Mary Kay Magistad about President Obama’s upcoming trip to China.

Geo Quiz

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Our daily geography puzzler.

Geo answer

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Today’s Geo Quiz asked for the Pacific island nation where someone set a new world record today for “longest distance to spit a champagne cork.” The answer is New Zealand, where Alistair Galpin spit a champagne cork 16 and a half feet. On this Guinness World Records Day…anchor Marco Werman finds out about quite a few new records set around the globe today, speaking with Justine Bourdariat of Guinness World Records.

Hafez Nazeri

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We’re going to hear about a brand new musical instrument. It’s called the “Hafez.” And it was created by Iranian musician Hafez Nazeri. He says it’s in the setar family. The setar — is a traditional Persian instrument similar to the lute. It’s over two centuries old. Hafez Nazeri says it was time to update it.