Worldfocus regulars Marcus Mabry of The New York Times and Roben Farzad of BusinessWeek join Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the implications for the Obama administration of the U.S role as a debtor nation to China. They talk about whether the Chinese may influence U.S. policy on issues ranging from Afghanistan to health care because of this new reality.

China is now taking steps to limit the availability of obscure materials to the rest of the world. Marcus Mabry of The New York Times discusses the implications of China's export restrictions on these rare metals.

As the recession continues, Germany's economy -- Europe's largest -- is contracting rapidly. France announced Wednesday that it has slipped into recession. Marcus Mabry of The New York Times discusses the deepening economic downturn and what may be in store for Europe.

Markets had the best showing this week in four months, even as G-20 finance ministers met in London ahead of their leaders' meeting next month. Among other things, the ministers will discuss the question of governments stimulating or spending their way out of the recession.

The OECD warns that what had been some of the world's strongest economies -- China, Russia and Germany -- are now deteriorating the most quickly. Marcus Mabry of The New York Times discusses how this will impact the U.S.