world salutes you. reporter: thatcherism was joined with reaganomics, the goal of cutting taxes and government spending. those spending along with deficits ro he s in the u.s. during reagan s time. what was thatcher s economic legacy to her supporters? the test of our success was when labor finally did come back into office in 1997, 18 years on, they didn t reverse any one of our policies. they ve all been accepted as part of what was necessary to create a prosperous economy. reporter: that was, of course, before the recent economic crisis. and calls for some industries to be re-regulated. and perhaps a rethink on how thatcherism impacted the british economy. jim boulden, cnn, london. britain is certainly going to be in focus in the year 2012 because it is an olympic year, it s being hosted in london. as you d expect there s plenty
became a barrister before entering politics, andrew. certainly a huge character. i remember growing up in australia and we watched margaret thatcher s antics and rise with interest. she was such a global figure. her controversial economic policies, though, are probably the ones that she ll be best remembered for in the u.s. under ronald reagan, deregulation and shifting the balance of power from workers to business, took the form of reaganomics it was known in the uk. similar policies, in part thatcherism. it is relevant today to supporters and critics alike. jim boulden has more. reporter: margaret thatcher swept into office in 1979 with the promise of transforming the british economy. a promise she most certainly fulfilled. where there is discord may we bring harmony. where there s error, may we bring truth. where there is doubt, may we
to 14 years in prison for the murder of a black teenage, stevon moore, at least two decades ago. the judge said they committed a terrible and evil crime because of racial hatred. they were convicted with new forensic evidence that was not available back then. for the first time in more than 50 years, a british foreign secretary is in myanmar. william hague is meeting with government officials bringing a message of reform and offering britain s help. he s also meeting with pro-democracy leader aung san suu kyi. her party has been re-establi re-established and will be part of elections in april. those are the top stories from cnn. world business today starts right now. good morning from cnn london. i m charles hodson. and good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i m andrew stevens. you re watching world business today. our top stories this thursday, january 5th european investors are on edge as greece sounds the alarm and france faces a big test on the bond markets. a
choreographed affair, as we were expecting from north korea, very similar to what we saw 17 years ago for the funeral of kim il-sun. we saw the procession. coffin going through the streets of pyongyang, 40 kilometers was the procession. and along those snow-laden streets, there were tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of mourners who had come out to pay their last respects. this was a lot of emotion. we did see at the front of these crowds a lot of wailing and weeping and beating of chests. although further back in the crowds, there were some more passive looking people paying their respects. so this is as it was expected. kim jong-un obviously now called the supreme leader according to state media was also front and center. zain? will anything change in north korea under kim jong-un? this is what everyone would like to know. at this point, the consensus appears to be that nothing will change in the near term. what we did see today was kim jong-un walking along
took a lead after round one are still ahead. election process has months to go. it s scheduled to wrap up in march. beljan belgian police have ruled out terrorism. authorities are puzzled about the reasons for carrying out this gun and grenade attack in downtown. those are the top stories from cnn, the world news leader. i m zain vergee. world business today starts now. hello and welcome to world business today, it s thursday, december 15th and i m nina dos santos at cnn london. and in hong kong, these are the top stories. export angst, disappointing stock day and manufacturing malaise sound alarm bells here in asia. cracks are appearing in the eu s agreement that was men to the save the single currency. and chinese internet senses are way in as anger over a land grab continues. debt and economic distress have dragged western economies down over the past few years, it seems as though asia had been appearing to defy gravity. now it seems the signs are that th