The total units made by eight major Japanese automakers for their domestic market fell 10.6 percent year-on-year in January to 714,580, the companies said.

Among the majors, Honda Motor Co.'s domestic production for January plunged 40.3 percent to 58,772 vehicles, Kyodo News reported.

Nissan Motor Co. January production was down 26.4 percent to 70,698 units, while Toyota Motor Corp. production slipped 5.7 percent to 278,804 vehicles.

Via: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/02/27/Japanese-domestic-auto-production-drops/UPI-55191362021177/

Same data in slightly different view:

Small bump:

And cost of this bump is far from small, as oil is much harder to get now:

Projections:

Issues with new stuff:

EROI is dropping as it is clear from charts below, it means that more and more of oil are going not to consumption, but to producing oil, so all this fancy bumps are, in fact, much worse :-)

This leads to much quicker reduction of net energy available to people, check that happens with right part of bell curve:

And finally most important chart:

The bamboo species Melocanna baccifera blossoms en masse approximately every 48 years. This particular type of bamboo grows throughout a large area of Northeast India (primarily in Mizoram and Manipur States) as well as regions of Burma (mainly Chin State) and Bangladesh (Hill Tracts.) It densely covers valleys and hillsides in the typically rugged terrain of the region. The blossoming bamboo produces fruit, then dies off.

The fruit has a large seed, resembles avocado, and is packed with protein and other nutrients. During the fruiting stage of the cycle, local species of forest rats feed on the bamboo fruits/seeds. The rats cease cannibalizing their young and begin to reproduce in an accelerated birth surge, producing a new rat generation as often as every three months. Once the burgeoning population of rats has stripped the forest of bamboo fruit/seeds, nocturnal rat swarms quietly invade farms and villages to devour crops and stored rice, other grains, potatoes, maize, other vegetables, chili, and sesame.

The rodents often grow to particularly large sizes and can gnaw through bamboo and wood floors, walls, storage containers and granaries. This phenomenon has historically resulted in mass starvation among the indigenous peoples of the region where Melocanna baccifera bamboo grows. According to The Times of India, "the last flowering in Mizoram, in 1958-59, caused a famine that killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of livelihoods." The bamboo flowering and rat infestation cycle has in the past lasted for about three years, until the rats run out of food and their populations return to normal.

Via: http://www.projectmaje.org/mautam.htm

See more charts by country, and sector at http://www.imaa-institute.org/statistics-mergers-acquisitions.html#MergersAcquisitions_Worldwide

One trend which has become blatantly apparent since mid-2012 is that M&A is the preferred growth strategy for US & UK companies. Rather than opting for the lengthier and often more costly process of developing their own operations, companies are more and more commonly seeking to acquire other companies operations with the view of integrating them into their own thus saving costs of development of personnel, buildings and infrastructure. What we are hearing first hand is that companies would much rather acquire existing operations in order to save time in order to capitalize on current market conditions as quickly as possible.

Via: http://www.benchmarkcorporate.com/2013/02/21/2013-ma-activity-the-story-so-far%E2%80%A6/

Global mergers and acquisitions rose to the highest level in four years this quarter, as a surge in U.S. deals provided ground for optimism and salvaged what had been the worst year for takeovers since the financial crisis. Companies worldwide have announced $691.9 billion in purchases in the final three months of the year, the most since the third quarter of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-27/fourth-quarter-m-a-surge-spurs-optimism-after-2012-deals-decline.html

Banks and real owners are assembling huge conglomerates :-)

This week, the people of Nottingham welcomed Goliath with open arms. An incredible 1,701 people applied for eight vacancies at a new Costa branch that opened yesterday. But such devotion is far from a reaction to a paucity of macchiatos in the suburb of Mapperley. Newly released quarterly figures show that despite a record number of people now in work, millions are trapped in a cycle of part-time employment. Permanent jobs are in short supply, stunting Britain’s recovery.

Via: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9888250/Costa-Coffee-barista-Im-going-to-cling-on-to-this-job.html

Btw, GB credit rating had been downgraded recently.

The country has seen a huge amount of homeowners default on their rents or mortgage payments, prompting a wave of repossession by government-backed banks.

Following several suicides some locksmiths are no longer willing to carry out banks's orders to evict people from their houses.

The Spanish government authorities and banks have turned to the fire service to step in and break open the doors of those resisting eviction

Last Tuesday, firefighters in Coruna, a town in Northern Spain, were called to help evict an 85-year-old woman who had defaulted on her rent. When the firefighters arrived they refused to open the door and some of them joined in the protest. Since then, firefighters in other regions such as Catalonia and Madrid have followed their example.

Via:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9888042/Spanish-firemen-and-locksmiths-refuse-to-evict-homeowners.html

I am sure, they'll find solution. may be will be using special forces to break into your door, may be will just blast it with explosives.

"Things are quite tough right now," she said after the wedding. "We cut down on many things, from invitations to the reception, on everything."

The number of Greek couples who tied the knot in church tumbled to 28,000 in 2011, two years into Europe's debt crisis, compared to the pre-crisis level of 40,000 in 2008, according to the country's statistic service ELSTAT.

In contrast, the number of low-key civil unions skyrocketed to 26,000 in 2011 from about 8,000 a decade earlier.

Via: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_21/02/2013_484079

Check how it'll be, especially if you plan to get RED Epic to shoot weddings.

Better save some for your last days.

Some Greeks do not collect their dead loved ones from the hospital to avoid having to pay for the funeral. Others can no longer afford a traditional marble tombstone and so leave plots as simple dirt mounds overgrown by weeds, a cemetery official said.

But a third stage remains, one which in China at any rate may be reached at no distant period, when capital and organising energy may be developed within the country, either by Europeans planted there or by natives. Thus fully equipped for future internal development in all the necessary productive powers, such a nation may turn upon her civiliser, untrammelled by need of further industrial aid, undersell him in his own market, take away his other foreign markets and secure for herself what further developing work remains to be done in other undeveloped parts of the earth. The shallow platitudes by which the less instructed Free Trader sometimes attempts to shirk this vital issue have already been exposed. It is here enough to repeat that Free Trade can nowise guarantee the maintenance of industry or of an industrial population upon any particular country, and there is no consideration, theoretic or practical, to prevent British capital from transferring itself to China, provided it can find there a cheaper or more efficient supply of labour, or even to prevent Chinese capital with Chinese labour from ousting British produce in neutral markets of the world. What applies to Great Britain applies equally to the other industrial nations which have driven their economic suckers into China. It is at least conceivable that China might so turn the tables upon the Western industrial nations, and, either by adopting their capital and organisers or, as is more probable, by substituting her own, might flood their markets with her cheaper manufactures, and refusing their imports in exchange might take her payment in liens upon their capital, reversing the earlier process of investment until she gradually obtained financial control over her quondam patrons and civilisers. This is no idle speculation. If China in very truth possesses those industrial and business capacities with which she is commonly accredited, and the Western Powers are able to have their will in developing her upon Western lines, it seems extremely likely that this reaction will result.

Via: John A. Hobson, Imperialism, A Study, 1902

We end up with the evaluation spreadsheet. Each row lists some feature or sub-feature that someone has determined the technology must have. These features are all weighted according to their importance.

The columns then reflect all the options. Fill each cell with a number assessing how well this option delivers this feature, and you calculate a score for each option. Select the one with the highest weighted score, and you have the best technology for your needs.

Problem is, this rarely works.

For a start, the features and weightings aren’t objective. Someone gathers requirements, filtering them as they go. People argue about weightings. Ultimately, the person with the most power decides. We’ve just shifted the politics into the structure of the spreadsheet.

Research into the way experts make decisions shows that they rarely think through a set of options and assess them against objective “decision criteria”.

In situations where they need to integrate a lot of information, deal with uncertainty, and balance the concerns of diverse perspectives, experts go through the following stages:

They imagine themselves into the situation.

1. They identify a single option that will most likely meet their needs.
2. They test this option, mentally, against the situation.
3. If this option works well enough, they don’t waste time on further analysis. They select it and get into action.
4. If the option doesn't work, they adapt and adjust it in their minds. If they can find a way to make it work, they use it.
5. If they can’t find a way to make it work, they look for other options.
6. They may go through this loop several times, using the selection and testing and adaptation of options to improve their understanding of the situation. They evolve a workable solution.

Experts can do this remarkably quickly. Fire fighters and other emergency service workers go through this loop in life-and-death situations in fractions of a second.

We’re not fire fighters Lives don’t depend on the split-second timing of our decisions. So it makes sense to balance scenario-based decision-making with some thought about features, functionality and weighing off the different options.

We should make it easy to imagine ourselves into the situation we’re trying to address. What would it be like to use this system, work with this agency, etc? Write scenarios rather than feature lists, and ask vendors to explain how their technology fits each scenario.

We need to give ourselves hands-on time with each option, so we can experience how they really work. Vendor-driven presentations aren’t enough. Pilots are ideal, or hands-on workshops where we can try the options for ourselves during the course of the procurement.

Via: http://econsultancy.com/ru/blog/62153-how-we-buy-technology

Four out of 10 Greeks told the same survey that they no longer have any disposable money left after covering their basic needs, which is the highest rate ever recorded in Greece and the biggest in the October-December period in Europe. A year earlier (in Q4 2011) that rate had stood at 34 percent and in Q4 of 2010 it had been at 25 percent.

Even in cases where consumers do have some money left to spend, it goes mostly toward the payment of loan and credit card installments (31 percent) or savings (22 percent). Only a very small number of consumers use their disposable income for entertainment, vacations and buying clothes, which helps to explain the turnover slump in of the sectors of food catering, domestic tourism and apparel stores.

In exactly same fasion it'll be in US and EU.

Less and less money will be left, and this small amount will lead to destruction of division of labor. System will turn into ineffective natural economic.

As you can see, to prepare yourself, best idea is to go into basic food industry (buy some firm I mean).
Nothing fancy. Water, bread, milk. Something like it.

Monkeys like to eat, usually try to do it each day. Use it.

China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports, a milestone in the Asian nation’s challenge to the U.S. dominance in global commerce that emerged after the end of World War II in 1945.

U.S. exports and imports last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s total trade in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion. China had a $231.1 billion annual trade surplus while the U.S. had a trade deficit of $727.9 billion.

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-09/china-passes-u-s-to-become-the-world-s-biggest-trading-nation.html

The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week, an apparent end run around an unaccommodating Congress.

The change continues the shrinking of what used to be one of America’s most visible and powerful agencies, one that put the presence of the federal government in some of the smallest towns across the nation. The postmaster general had such powers of job patronage that the position — once part of the president’s Cabinet — was a coveted one.

In November, it reported a record annual loss of $15.9 billion for the last budget year and forecast more red ink in 2013, capping a tumultuous year in which it was forced to default on billions in retiree health benefit prepayments to avert bankruptcy.

The agency’s biggest problem — and the majority of the red ink in 2012 — was not caused by reduced mail flow but rather by mounting mandatory costs for future retiree health benefits, which made up $11.1 billion of the losses. Without that and other related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion, lower than the previous year.

Via: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/08/business/u-s-to-stop-saturday-mail-to-trim-costs/

Btw, this guys also rised shipping costs :-)

Despite big tax hikes as part of austerity measures demanded by international lenders, tax revenues fell precipitously in January, with the Greek Finance Ministry reporting a 16 percent decrease from a year earlier, and a loss of 775 million euros, or $1.05 billion in one month.

The government took in only 4.05 billion euros ($5.47 billion) in tax revenues in January, far short of its target of 4.36 billion euros ($5.89 billion), a $420 million shortfall in one month, and during an annual holiday sales period for shops who are bleeding customers and shutting down by the thousands.

If Greece fails to meet revenue targets it will trigger a correction clause at the end of each quarter of the year, setting off automatic spending cuts except for pensions and salaries. That could further harm already-depleted government services.

Finance Ministry officials attributed the decline in tax revenues to the drop in consumption, as revenues from Value Added Tax (VAT) shrank by 15 percent, while those from the special consumption taxes were also lower. Greeks hammered by big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions have cut back spending even on essential items, with supermarket sales falling 500 million euros, ($6763 million) in 2012.

Via: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/07/tax-hikes-backfire-greeces-revenues-plummet/

Check your future, guys.

Fujitsu Ltd. said Thursday it will eliminate 5,000 jobs and merge its LSI chip business with that of Panasonic Corp. to boost global competitiveness.

The venture will design large-scale integrated, or LSI, chips and contract out their manufacture, according to a joint statement by the companies. The government-backed Development Bank of Japan has been asked to help finance the venture, they said.

Fujitsu, Japan’s biggest software services provider for companies, will take ¥112 billion in charges combined in the two quarters ending March 31 for the restructuring and will also transfer 4,500 workers at the chip unit.

Funding by the DBJ will come after government-backed funds have invested in struggling chip-maker Renesas Electronics Corp. and a liquid crystal display venture formed by Sony Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp.

Under the plan, Fujitsu may move a production line in Mie Prefecture to a new chip foundry.

Fujitsu said it expects a net loss of ¥95 billion in the year ending March 31, compared with a previous forecast for net income of ¥25 billion, it said Thursday.

Panasonic, which is scheduled to announce a midterm plan by the end of next month, is restructuring as it heads toward a second straight annual loss. The company has eliminated more than 38,000 jobs since April, halted smartphone sales in Europe and closed plants making lithium-ion power cells.

Renesas Electronics Corp. is not involved in the latest merger due to discrepancies over the terms of the operations merger.

Via: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/08/business/fujitsu-to-ax-5000-jobs-in-merging-lsi-chip-business-with-panasonics/

Instead of repeating this shit again and again, let's stop and think.

What is happening around us?

Titanic is sinking. Economic crisis is only at first stages and unfolding slowly. Real wages in US and EU are not rising, in most countries they are shrinking. Add here increasing costs of food, fuel, home services, education.. Less and less is left for you to spend on cameras and other hobbies. Situation is the same across all market. Except guns. But people think about guns as "survival tool" now, not hobby.

In cameras we have even worse situation. With falling amount of money you get subsidised phone with so-so tiny camera and good screen. Despite being subsidised, of course you pay more than full price of original phone with time, and frequently it is more than $500. So, in fact, phones not only compete in your mind, but they literally eat the money you could have spent on compact camera.

Situation with larger mirrorless cameras is not much better. As market is slowly dividing into two niches - premium niche with still good margins and niche of constant discounts. Just check Panasonic and Olympus m43 cameras. Add here largest online retailers who work in minus (like Amazon) and you'll get more complete picture. Even your hobby market is fully expiriencing same consequences of usual elites approach - privatize all income and nationalize all expenses.

Greek police have stormed a metro train depot in the capital Athens, breaking up a sit-in by striking workers.

The workers had been on the ninth successive day of strike action that has crippled the underground system.

The conservative-led government used an emergency law to threaten the strikers with arrest unless they went back to work. It was not clear if the move would lead to transport resuming.

Strikers are opposed to proposals which might see their salaries slashed.

The operation took place shortly before 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT), with around 100 riot police officers entering the depot where workers had barricaded themselves in overnight.

A police spokesman told the BBC three people were arrested and subsequently released. The area around the depot has now been cordoned off to prevent others from joining the strike.

Bus drivers and railway workers were to join the strike on Friday. Transport unions say they will continue their action, raising the possibility that some could face arrest and criminal charges, with a prison sentence of up to five years.

Via: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21192096

47.8 million iPhones sold in Q1 of 2013 represents a new high water mark

iPhones and iPads -- the latter of which sold 22.9 million units during the quarter, up from 15.4 million a year ago and 14 million last quarter.

Yet shares dropped 10% after announcment.

In Q4 2012 (I mean here actual qurter, for Apple it is Q1 2013) Apple had all kinds of problems.
Hence they use famous Nokia techniques on artifically boosting sales figures.
They use intermediates and push as much items as possible just storing them, making good numbers in reports (but not good enough still).
Reports starting from late 2012 and first month of 2013 showed that Apple removes orders accross most partners, so they could sell big existing stock.

Via: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/apple-shows-signs-of-losing-steam/article7684513/?cmpid=rss1 and http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/23/apple-announces-q1-2013-earnings/

Look at this chart:

Here is similar one in other scale

So, elites task is to preserve as much fuel as they can to keep usual life standards as long as they can.

How to do it?

First, move all big power consumption offshore (metal producing factories).

Next, do same with manufacturing.

Rise service sector that will have big potential for energy saving.

You can also move many service and intellectual tasks offshore, as it also can potentially save big energy.

Best of all, it is all good for business profits.

Take control of big energy sources to be sure in stability is case of issues.

As I already wrote, it is very good business approach, as you pay using database zeros and knowledge for non renewable resource.

Almost forgot. It is also good idea to somehow reduce population. At least slash middle class that consume too much energy.

Via: http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=46984

• Beef: +10.2%
• Pork: +8.5%
• Fish: +7.1%
• Eggs: +9.2%
• Dairy: +6.8%
• Oils and Fats: +9.3%

2012 stuff

• Bushel of corn price has risen by 54 percent since mid-June

Via: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/17/Obama-economy-food-prices-skyrocketed-2011
And : http://business.financialpost.com/2012/07/17/americas-worst-drought-since-56-threatens-world-food-supply/

Via: http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/deal_could_prevent_spike_in_milk_prices/

One of the real big issues is that most food prices are heavy subsidized. US is not the leader here, but in EU sponsorship is very big. If, due to some reasons farmers and manufacturers sponsorship will be removed, shock will be severe.

Greece is facing a heating-oil crisis. With an economy that has contracted for five years and an unemployment rate at a record 25 percent, residents in northern Greece can’t heat their homes. Kastoria hasn’t received funds from the central government to warm schools and the mayor said he will close all 53 of them rather than let children freeze, a step already taken in a nearby town. Truckloads of wood are arriving from Bulgaria as families search for alternative fuels.

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-18/greeks-can-t-find-euros-to-buy-heating-oil-with-winter-economy.html

Garbage has started mounting up on the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki as a deadlock between municipal workers and the government continues over the latter’s plans to place hundreds of state workers in a redundancy scheme and to introduce a new payroll structure that will see civil service salaries reduced.

Via: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_18/12/2012_475064

Check it our, folks. This guys are slightly ahead in their jump :-)

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating... ...and you finish off as an orgasm (c) GC

Via: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/4-05122012-AP/EN/4-05122012-AP-EN.PDF

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dropped 5.6 points in November, bottoming out at 87.5. The two major events in November were the national elections and Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of the East Coast. To disentangle these, the results for the states impacted by Sandy were excluded from the computation for comparison. When separating the hurricane-impacted states from the remainder, the data makes clear that the election was the primary cause of the decline in owner optimism.

Something bad happened in November — and based on the NFIB survey data, it wasn’t merely Hurricane Sandy. The storm had a significant impact on the economy, no doubt, but it is very clear that a stunning number of owners who expect worse business conditions in six months had far more to do with the decline in small-business confidence. Nearly half of owners are now certain that things will be worse next year than they are now. Washington does not have the needs of small business in mind. Between the looming ‘fiscal cliff,’ the promise of higher health care costs and the endless onslaught of new regulations, owners have found themselves in a state of pessimism.

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/nfib-small-business-optimism-plunges-in-november-2012-12#ixzz2EnqTA3lf

Biggest gain was in retail jobs as expected in part of the Thanksgiving rush, which added +53K jobs, Professional and Business services rose by 43K, of which Administrative and Waste Services was +23K, and Hospitality and Leisure +23K: all low paying jobs. Construction jobs lost: 20K

This is starting to appear like a game of "pass the parcel" for debt, with the loser being.... everyone.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-17/china-persists-refusing-buy-us-paper-foreign-ltm-purchases-treasurys-plunge-three-ye

But, both of them are just tools. Like house bubble.

Let just make mind experiment. Suppose both of them collapse.

This will mean that most students and their parents will be required to make savings to pay for education.

It'll also mean that most working people will start increasing savings rate from current very low level to one that allows them to survive later.

Both this things instantly will cause next deflation spiral cycle.

So, it was stupid to blame funds for buying junk bonds (they had been ordered to, to keep credits going in main economy).

And it is also stupid to blame FED from buying this junk and converting it into money. As they just keep another tool that keep savings low afloat.