Posted by Katharine Crnko

For Marketplace Morning Report, Thursday, November 4, 2010

Today’s big news that the Federal Reserve’s announcement that they plan to buy $600 billion in government bonds. They hope that this move boosts the economy and job markets.

Canada’s Potash Corporation accounts for 30 percent of the world’s potash supply, and BHP Billiton wants in on the fertilizer’s market. But so far Canada has not been interested.

The Australian airline Qantas grounded its entire fleet of Airbus A380s after a flight made an emergency landing after an engine ripped off. No American airlines use the Airbus A380s.

Geolocation services like Foursquare and Facebook Places are supposed to be all the rage on the Internet these days. But a Pew Research Center study says only 4 percent of Americans online use these apps.

And finally — In Part Two of our continuing series, Urban Desert, we learned about Inner Mongolia and its abandoned cities. Be sure to check out the slideshow.

Here are the songs we played:

• Trav’lin’ All Alone (Nickodemus & Zeb Remix) — Billie Holiday Buy

• Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll — Vaughan Mason And Crew Buy

• Going Back To Cali– LL Cool JBuy

• Cheeseburger In Paradise — Jimmy Buffet Tribute Buy

• Fast As You Can (Album Version) — Fiona Apple Buy