Blogman's Notes: It is not possible to keep factories manufacturing goods for which buyers are drying up rapidly. Although the Media, such as in the Reuters story below spin the numbers, as do Politicians and Economists, to make it appear that things are just about to get better, that these problems will last only one or two quarters (haven't they been saying that since 2007); the fact is that the world is undergoing structural problems that can only be resolved by abandoning the structure completely. The Economic - Financial structure of the world is rotten and rotting away through the canker of DEBT that keeps eating away at it like a swarm of locusts that keeps getting bigger and bigger. So the only solution is to cancel all debts and start over again. That solution is not desired by the Powers that Be so we will see a final collapse of the Structure, the only question is when will it happen and will it be slow or sudden?
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(Reuters) - Global manufacturing activity was subdued going into 2012, with the euro zone's industrial sector suffering its fifth straight month of declines in December and Asian factories mostly stuck in a rut.
Monday's purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) provided further evidence that Europe is unlikely to avoid a recession.
The rate of decline of activity in euro zone factories eased slightly to raise hopes the downturn will not be as severe as feared, though hiccups in the Spanish and Czech deficit reduction programs emphasized the extent of the continent's debt troubles.
With Asian PMIs showing a clear lack of momentum in the vast industrial economies of China and South Korea, the United States seems to be one of the few major economies showing signs of an upturn, even if modest and uncertain.
Economists expect the U.S. ISM manufacturing survey due at 1500 GMT on Tuesday to show American factories expanded at a faster pace in December.
The Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose slightly in December to 46.9 from November's 28-month low of 46.4, but marked a fifth month below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction.
Compiler Markit said levels of production and new orders fell in all of the euro zone countries covered by the survey for the second month running.
"These numbers are consistent with our view that it's going to be a normal recession," said Dirk Schumacher, senior European economist at Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt.
"Still painful, no doubt about that, but there's no indication that it's going to look like anything like around the end of 2008, so far."
Reuters polls of economists suggest the euro zone economy is already stuck in a recession that will last until the second quarter of 2012. They forecast the economy will probably see no growth this year.
Indeed, most economists now expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to counter this by cutting interest rates to 0.75 percent in the next few months, below their record low 1.0 percent.
The PMIs showed the euro zone's peripheral economies tanking in December, with Spain's manufacturing slump extending to eight months, putting pressure on the government to help drive a return to economic growth as it struggles to cut its debt.
Madrid's public deficit for 2011 may be even higher than the above-target 8 percent of gross domestic product forecast by the new centre-right government on Friday, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Monday.
The Czech Republic could let its public deficit grow above target this year if the economy contracts, its Prime Minister Petr Necas was quoted as saying on Monday.
Worries about the financing of highly indebted European countries sent the euro to a decade low against the Japanese yen on Monday, though moves were exacerbated by thin holiday trade.
ASIA WOBBLES
January 12, 2012 – INDIANA - The days of medical masks at airports and widespread panic may be coming back—that’s because at least 12 humans are believed to have been infected with a new strain of swine flu that’s not covered by this season’s vaccine. The new swine flu strain, H3N2v, has shown at least some potential for human-to-human transmission in those 12 individuals, which makes it especially dangerous. Between 2009 and mid-2010, more than 17,000 people died worldwide from the highly contagious H1N1 swine flu strain, leading the World Health Organization to call the strain a pandemic. The 12 people with the new swine flu strain live in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Officials for the Centers for Disease Control say the sample size of H3N2 infections is too small to know whether it will pose a threat to the population at large. “It’s a very small sample and it’s geographically spread, which makes it more difficult to get a handle on it,” says Jeffrey Dimond, a CDC spokesman. “Most of the cases have come through direct contact with the animals, through the 4H Club and that sort of thing.” In order to have a true threat of causing an epidemic or pandemic, Dimond says the virus needs to spread easily between humans. “If you’re in close contact with someone who’s ill, that’s one thing,” he says. “To make it like the pandemic flu of a few years ago, it has to be highly contagious from human to human.” H3N2v or another new flu strain could disrupt what CDC officials expected to be a relatively quiet flu season. Each year’s flu vaccine protects against specific strains of the virus that researchers expect to circulate. In October, Joe Bresee, chief of CDC’s influenza epidemiology and prevention branch, said he was confident this year’s vaccine would protect against the most dangerous flu strains. –U.S. News 
Indonesia tallies 3rd victim of H5N1 in 90 days: Jakarta, Indonesia – A 24-year-old man has died from the bird flu in Jakarta, becoming the third Indonesian victim of the virus in three months. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, head of the Health Ministry’s communicable diseases department, confirmed the death and said tests showed that the man was infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus from birds living around his house. “We have taken samples from birds around his home and are waiting for lab results to determine if they were infected with the virus,” he said. The World Health Organization reports that Indonesia experienced 150 deaths from bird flu between 2003 and 2011. –Gant Daily 
H5N1 bird outbreak declared in district of India: Meghalaya government Wednesday confirmed that the samples of dead birds sent to Bhopal tested positive of bird-flu. “The government sent samples of birds died on the government-run farm at Williamnagar, to the Bhopal-High Security Animal Disease Laboratory have tested positive of H5N1,” Prashant Naik, principal secretary of Animal and Husbandry department told Nagaland Post. As soon as the laboratory informed about the reports, Wednesday evening, Meghalaya government alerted all district authorities. More than 3,000 poultry birds have died in the past few weeks on a farm in Williamnagar, the district headquarters of East Garo Hills district. We have asked the district administration to monitor health of all the birds and the movement of birds from the affected area has also been stopped,” Naik said. District administrations in the western part of Meghalaya, meanwhile, have imposed Section 144 CrPC banning movement and selling of poultry and poultry products after the confirmation of bird flu. “It has been decided to immediately commence the culling of birds and destruction of eggs and feed material to control further spread of the disease. The virus has been contained in the affected area,” Praveen Bakshi, district magistrate of East Garo Hills said. “The culling will start from tomorrow (Thursday) within a radius of three kilometres of the infected area,” Bakshi said, adding that movement of farm personnel, restricting access to wild and stray birds and stopping access to infected premises has been banned. In addition, surveillance has been ordered in surrounding areas up to 10 km. –Nagaland Post
January 8, 2012 – MANILA – Philippine rescuers dug through rock and mud Friday looking for people feared buried by a deadly landslide at a remote gold mining community, as officials vowed to shut down unsafe mine sites. At least 25 people were killed on Mindanao island before dawn on Thursday when a rock and mud avalanche buried a mountain settlement of gold prospectors who had refused to leave an area declared too dangerous for habitation. 
Cases of Murray Valley encephalitis have already been found in chickens
