barmitzvahs.biz

Making a Career Out of Meatballs

JoshB — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:02:39 +0000

By GRACE L. WILLIAMS

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

Daniel Mancini, 51, spent 25 years working in the apparel industry, before turning back to a childhood passion: meatballs.

He started his career with department-store jobs in New York City that eventually turned into management roles. A six-month executive training program after college led him to now-defunct Gimbels department store, where he also served as a manager. Mr. Mancini held posts at a variety of other stores, like now-defunct Alexander’s department store on 59th Street and Sasson Jeans before he was recruited to work in sales for a junior collection company that launched in 1986 called Ultra Pink, where he rose through the ranks to become president.

“I love the fact that it’s very creative and wherever I was I always had my hand in on design,” says Mr. Mancini of the fashion industry.

4 Elbows, LLC

‘Meatball Dan’ Mancini

But as his career played out, Mr. Mancini began to wonder what might be next. It was memories of cooking alongside his grandmother Anna Mancini that led to a second act.

Some of Mr. Mancini’s earliest memories involved helping his grandmother in the kitchen. As he grew up, he became Anna’s right hand, helping her shop for groceries and cook the recipes she had memorized. At 15, he asked her to teach him exactly how to cook her dishes. “I just felt that if I didn’t learn all the recipes, they’d be gone,” he says. None of the 25 recipes used exact measures and he never wrote them down either.

In 2008, long after Anna had died and he had made his name in the garment industry, Mr. Mancini was looking for a new challenge. He had often cooked his grandmother’s recipes for friends, earning the nickname “Meatball Dan.” It was after one such meal that he decided to create a business that brought the family dinners he had enjoyed as a child to people outside his social circle. In a nod to his favorite dish, the meatball, Mr. Mancini went into business with his grandmother’s recipe, creating what became “Meatballs and Sunday Sauce.”

At first, he wasn’t sure what to do with his idea. Mr. Mancini sent an email to a local New Jersey market called Eden Gourmet (a division of Garden of Eden) about his product and was invited to bring them by. Mr. Mancini cooked up a batch of his grandmother’s meatballs in his own kitchen and served them up to the manager. After serving the meatballs to Eden Gourmet management, Mr. Mancini knew he was on to something, but wasn’t ready to quit his day job without financial backing. Once he had a working recipe, Mr. Mancini approached Carl Wolf, who lived in the same central New Jersey town as he did and who is the former chief executive of Alpine Lace Co., a deli cheese company, with his idea for a product that he named “MamaMancini’s.”

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“He came to us and said he had the world’s greatest meatball,” says Mr. Wolf. “And we said, ‘Oh sure.’ Sure enough, it was a really good product.”

He worked at perfecting the recipe—which took over 18 months and involved turning a small scale recipe into thousands of meatballs. Mr. Wolf then agreed to license the product from Mr. Mancini for about $1.5 million. Under terms of the agreement, the name MamaMancini’s as well as recipes Mr. Mancini created are owned by Mr. Wolf. Mr. Mancini says that in addition to the licensing agreement, he receives royalties.

“I knew that if this was going to work, I had to make a deal with someone who was an expert,” says Mr. Mancini.

After that deal was inked, Mr. Mancini quit the garment industry to focus on becoming the face of a meatball empire. He declines to disclose his salary, but says it is about half of what he made in the garment industry.

Production was moved to a 17,000 square foot factory in East Rutherford, N.J., and the meatballs started rolling. After selling the product locally in supermarkets in New York and New Jersey, in April 2009, Mr. Mancini got his chance to go national with his product when the Martha Stewart Show featured Mr. Mancini with his meatballs.

The attention boosted the brand enough to catch on and win distribution with well-known supermarket chains, including Whole Foods, which carries the products in 24 stores in the Northeast.

The fact that his career change also pays tribute to his grandmother makes his success twice as sweet. “When I made this change, I was scared to death,” he says. “I felt in my heart that if you do something that you love, it will be successful.”

Corrections & Amplifications

MamaMancini’s, a gourmet food start-up, received $1.5 million in capital investments from investors including Carl Wolf, former chief executive of Alpine Lace. Mr. Wolf, his partner Matt Brown and Daniel Mancini started MamaMancini’s by developing over 18 months a meatball recipe inspired by Mr. Mancini’s grandmother. This article incorrectly says that Mr. Mancini received $1.5 million as part of a licensing agreement and that Mr. Wolf was still CEO of Alpine Lace. The article also incorrectly gave the company’s name as Mama Mancini, incorrectly said that the recipe took Messrs. Mancini and Wolf two weeks to develop and failed to note Mr. Brown’s involvement.

Blur to play London’s Hyde Park at Olympics closing

JoshB — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:02:39 +0000

LONDON |
Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:22am EST

LONDON (Reuters) – British band Blur will headline a concert in London’s Hyde Park that coincides with the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, organizers said on Tuesday.

Highlights of the end of the Olympics will be beamed to tens of thousands of ticket holders in Hyde Park on August 12 via giant screens.

Joining Blur will be The Specials and New Order in a line-up being billed as “Best of British.”

Tickets for the closing ceremony celebration concert go on sale on February 24 and cost 55 pounds ($87) plus a booking fee.

Another music concert will be held at the same venue on July 27 to mark the opening of the Olympic Games.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Palestine Telecommunications Company announces end of year financial results for 2011

JoshB — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:02:39 +0000

Sabih Masri, Chairman of the Palestine Telecommunications Company, PalTel announced the financial results for year end 2011 at a Board of Directors meeting held earlier this month in Amman, Jordan. Consolidated net operating revenues grew by 9.4% to reach $522m at the end of year 2011 compared with $477m at the end of year 2010.

In regards to the operating revenues of each segment, the company achieved a growth in its mobile, fixed Line and data revenues by 9.7%, 4.6%, and 81.4% respectively.

The consolidated operating income for the company reached $179m by the end of year 2011 compared with $158m by the end of year 2010, a growth of 13.7%. This growth was achieved by an increase in consolidated revenues

and in light of the positive effect of the new operating strategy focusing management efforts on core telecom functions and outsourcing support functions.

The consolidated net income increased by 5.1% to stand at $128m at the end of year 2011 compared with $122m at the end of year 2010. The increase is operationally driven resulting from a dual strategy of maintaining existing customer loyalty and wining new customers across all segments. The growth in customer base was achieved across all core business including fixed line services.

Sabih Masri, Chairman of PalTel emphasized that, “the Group was able to achieve another impeccable set of operational results despite a difficult year of increased competition, regional turmoil and lingering financial crisis in global markets. The Group was able to wither the storm and achieve growth on all fronts continuing to gain customer confidence and brand recognition for reliable services. He also added, “The Group is forging ahead with its plans to lay the foundation for state of the art technology services; gaining an edge over its competitors and leading the path in building technology connectivity in Palestine.”

Ammar Aker, CEO of Paltel Group stated, “We are proud to end 2011 with such positive results, during which we coped with increased exogenous challenges, and relied on our innate capacities and solid marketing schemes to gain more foothold in market share. We will continue aiming at gaining more market share from the remaining customer base still available for telecom inclusion. “We continue to be challenged by regional and global upsets in the financial markets affecting the general investment climate, despite the fact that our operational results are healthy and upward oriented.

Current Operating Performance

Fixed Line

The number of fixed line subscribers witnessed 6.1% growth rate to stand at 385K subscribers compared with 363K as of the end of FY-2010. This growth resulted from new acquisition campaigns.

The average monthly revenue per fixed line subscriber reached $21.1 at the end of year 2011 compared with $20.2 at the end of FY-2010.

Mobile

Mobile subscribers grew by 7.4 % to stand at 2.42m at the end of year 2011 compared with 2.26m at the end of FY-2010. The composition (split between) of the prepaid and postpaid subscribers was 90% and 10% respectively.

This growth in the number of mobile subscribers was affected by several acquisition campaigns and new products and services that targeted existing and prospective customers.

The blended ARPU declined by 1.8% to reach $15.1/subscriber/month compared with $15.4/subscriber/month in year 2010. This decrease in the ARPU is attributable to the larger customer base, low ARPU of the new customers and to offering larger discounts to the customers.

Data

The data segment achieved a 44.5% growth rate in the number of ADSL lines to stand at 156K lines by FY 2011 compared with 108K lines as of the end of FY-2010. This increase in customer base was accompanied by a decline in ARPU which reached $18.8 in 2011 compared to $25.8 by year end 2010. In addition, penetration rate of the ADSL lines (per landline) increased from 29.8% at the end of FY-2010 to 40.5% at the end year 2011.

Future Outlook

The Group will continue to grow its customer base in its core services, Mobile, Fixed Line and Data services while meeting the demands of customers who will be able to benefit from the group’s edge in investing in state of the art technology. The Group will continue to serve its customers in Gaza and remote marginalized areas of the West Bank while retaining current customers. The Group will continue to focus its marketing energy on an ever younger market that will promise more operational yields. The Group is increasing its social investments via the Paltel Group Foundation in the year ahead to meet an increasing developmental need in Palestine in the realm of bridging the digital divide towards building more connectivity in the country.

Fakes Infiltrate Injectable Drugs

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:02:39 +0000

By JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF, JEANNE WHALEN and CHRISTOPHER WEAVER

News that a counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin was found in the U.S. highlights a rising threat: fakes of costly injectable therapies, rather than simple pills, such as Viagra.

The Food and Drug Administration recently alerted doctors and other health-care providers about the risk of “non-FDA-approved injectable cancer medications,” including unauthorized versions of Herceptin, Rituxan and Neupogen, that were being marketed and sold to clinics and “most likely were administered to patients.”

Genentech/Associated Press

A vial of Avastin

Genentech/Associated Press

A counterfeit vial of Avastin

On Jan. 13, the FDA also alerted British drug maker AstraZeneca PLC to “a number of cases of illegal importation of oncology drugs into the U.S.,” including AstraZeneca’s injectable cancer drug Faslodex, according to the company.

The FDA said this unapproved Faslodex was “most likely” administered to patients. AstraZeneca said it has “no evidence” that the illegally imported drug entered the legitimate supply chain in the U.S. or elsewhere.

A spokeswoman for Amgen Inc., maker of Neupogen, said it isn’t aware of any counterfeits of its products on the U.S. market and is cooperating with an FDA investigation of illegal imports of an unidentified product, not approved for sale in the U.S., that is being sold on the Internet and directly to clinics.

Read Related Content

Fake Cancer Drug Found in U.S. (Feb. 15, 2012)

In the past, most drug-counterfeiting incidents have involved pills such as the erectile-dysfunction medicine Viagra, the most commonly faked drug, according to its maker, Pfizer Inc., with more than 9.5 million bogus tablets seized last year. Increasingly, however, complicated therapies like Avastin, which is given intravenously, are being faked, drug makers say.

Enlarge Image

Injectable drugs have become increasingly attractive to counterfeiters, in part because they often fetch a higher price than regular pills. Avastin, made by Roche Holding‘s Genentech unit, costs $2,400 a vial.

Hugh Pullen, associate director for European government affairs at Eli Lilly & Co., said the faking of such products is a “growing phenomenon” and something Lilly is “looking at very closely.”

Counterfeiters “are going after anything and everything, from patented to non-patented, expensive to inexpensive,” said John Clark, Pfizer’s chief security officer. Last year, counterfeit Viagra accounted for 85% of the seized fake Pfizer drugs, down from a high of 95% when counterfeiting emerged as a serious threat in the late 1990s.

The number of reports of counterfeited injectable biological drugs, such as Avastin, is still small. But they have more than doubled to 4% of the world-wide total of reported counterfeiting incidents between 2009 and 2005, according to the most recent data collected by the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a nonprofit group that works on behalf of drug makers. A third of the counterfeit injectables were cancer treatments.

In 2009, the group identified 2,003 drug-counterfeiting incidents world-wide, based on law-enforcement actions, regulators’ warnings and company announcements that fake drugs had been discovered.

The faking of injectable drugs is particularly worrisome to health-care providers because they tend to be life-savings medications for conditions such as cancer, rather than so-called lifestyle drugs, such as Viagra.

In the case of Avastin, the discovery of counterfeits has prompted clinics and hospitals in the U.S. to scrutinize their supplies. So far, the FDA says it hasn’t received any reports of cancer patients injured by the counterfeit Avastin.

The agency has warned 19 medical clinics, most in California, that they may have bought counterfeit Avastin. Connie Jung, an official in the FDA’s drug compliance office, described the threat as limited.

“This only affects a small subset of cancer patients” whose doctors purchased the illegitimate drugs, she said.

The source of the fake drug hasn’t been determined, but European and U.S. authorities said Wednesday they were looking into its path from a supplier in Switzerland through a Danish wholesaler and then to a British wholesaler, before a Tennessee company sold it in the U.S.

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it found that 41 out of 167 packs of counterfeit Avastin the British drug wholesaler bought from its Danish counterpart already had been sold to the U.S. The agency quarantined the packs that remained at the British company.

The FDA identified the British wholesaler supplying the U.S. as Quality Specialty Products, which it said may also be known as Montana Health Care Solutions. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.

While experts say the U.S. drug supply remains safe, unapproved drugs can enter through purchases from Internet pharmacies or unauthorized suppliers. In the absence of a monitoring system, they then can make their way undetected through the network of wholesalers and distributors that furnish medicines to doctors and conventional pharmacies.

“We don’t have any system in place for authenticating drugs in the U.S.,” said Allan Coukell, director of medical programs at the Pew Health Group, who co-wrote a report last year on counterfeit and adulterated drugs. He said federal laws don’t require the tracking and tracing of medicines, though companies are developing a plan, and California has a law that starts taking effect for manufacturers in 2015 .

Last year Europe adopted legislation requiring each pack of drugs to carry a unique serial number. When the legislation comes into force in 2016, pharmacists and hospitals will be required to scan the bar code to ensure the product is legitimate.

Many drug makers have taken their own steps to curb counterfeiting. Pfizer has a global security team including former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Turkish narcotics agents, Hong Kong police and U.K. law-enforcement personnel to conduct undercover purchases and do other investigations. It shares the results with authorities in various countries.

China and Jordan now are investigating the counterfeiting of Pfizer drugs based on a company investigation, the company’s Mr. Clark said.

When three counterfeiters in an Asian country began selling fake versions of its drugs, Abbott Laboratories arranged a sting by forming fake businesses, said Doug Frazier, head of Abbott’s protection group. He declined to identify the country but said Abbott arranged for local law enforcement to arrest the suspects.

Earlier: Fake Cancer Drug Found in U.S.

Because they are often administered in hospitals, by nurses or doctors, injectable drugs are harder to sneak into the supply chain than pills, industry experts say. Britain’s MHRA said the Avastin counterfeiting marks only the second time it has come across counterfeit injectable medicines in the legitimate supply chain. A spokeswoman for the European Medicines Agency called it “very rare.”

Nevertheless, hospitals and clinics attempting to “cut corners” might buy drugs from “more of a gray-market distributor than might be wise,” said Mark Davison, an industry consultant and author of the book “Pharmaceutical Anti-Counterfeiting: Combating the Real Danger from Fake Drugs.” He pointed to a case from the early 2000s when counterfeit Epogen, an injected anemia drug, made its way into Florida’s health-care system.

Typically, counterfeiters target doctors through email spam campaigns or “fax blasts” offering discounts on drugs administered at their offices or in hospitals, said Thomas Kubic, the Pharmaceutical Security Institute’s president and chief executive.

Foreign distributors, posing as legitimate drug wholesalers, may team up with local salespeople to recruit new physician customers, Mr. Kubic said. Those wholesalers usually get conventional drugs from legitimate Indian or Chinese generic drug manufacturers that make compounds that are not approved in the U.S.

The Danish Medicines Agency appears to have been the first regulator to notice the counterfeit Avastin. It reported to Britain’s MHRA on Dec. 15 that a Danish wholesaler had purchased the fake medicine from a Swiss company and then sold it to a U.K. firm, according to British and Danish drug regulators. After finding that counterfeit packs had been sold to the U.S., the MHRA said, it told the FDA on Dec. 22.

The MHRA said there is “no evidence” that British patients received counterfeit Avastin, but that it is still investigating the matter. It added that it doesn’t know where the fake product was produced.

The FDA collected the suspect vials and, working with Genentech, confirmed through testing that they were counterfeit, said the FDA’s Ms. Jung. After receiving the confirmation this week, the agency decided to warn doctors and hospitals about the fakes, she said.

Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at jonathan.rockoff@wsj.com, Jeanne Whalen at jeanne.whalen@wsj.com and Christopher Weaver at chistopher.weaver@wsj.com

EPA Awards Over $470,000 to Provide Safe, Reliable Drinking Water to Louisiana Residents

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:02:39 +0000

Release Date: 01/25/2012Contact Information: Dave Bary or Jennah Durant at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

(DALLAS – January 25, 2012) A new grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will help provide safe, reliable drinking water to the people of Louisiana. The grant for $474,382, given to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (LDHH), will be used to manage the state’s drinking water program. These activities include attaining and maintaining safe drinking water quality standards, supporting the state’s public drinking water systems, and compliance, enforcement and technical assistance.

Additional information on EPA grants: http://www.epa.gov/region6/gandf/index.htm

More about activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/region6

EPA audio file is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/jan2012.html
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Published by: United States Environmental Protection Agence (EPA) (yosemite.epa.gov)

How to Lower Your Workplace Stress

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:02:39 +0000

By RUTH MANTELL

Your workload has increased, so have your boss’s expectations. But scaling back could mean losing a job.

Talk about stress.

Paul Baard, an organizational and motivational psychologist at Fordham University’s graduate business school in New York, knows just how stressful a work environment can get. He has consulted with athletes in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of professional sports.

What secret has he passed along to those clients? When you are in a slump, you can still contribute by encouraging your teammates.

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Christoph Hitz

Rather than burdening a team with distracting self-doubt and pity, try to help others, he advises. “In order to remain self-motivated, research has found that the innate psychological need for competence must be satisfied,” Mr. Baard says. “This drive pertains not only to the ability to do a job but to achieve something through it—to have impact, to contribute. A way an employee can expand opportunities to satisfy this need is to help her team succeed by encouraging others, even if her direct contributions are limited.”

Click Here to View Other Health & Wellness Articles

Age, occupation and family circumstances, among other factors, can all play a part in how workers respond to different stressors. But experts say there are steps that can help you take control of your happiness at work this year.

Find meaning in your tasks. Commitment to a goal beyond self-promotion can help a worker manage stress levels, says John Weaver, a psychologist at Psychology For Business, a Brookfield, Wis.-based employment consultancy.

Several years ago, Mr. Weaver consulted for a long-term-care facility in Wisconsin that had flooded. Because of the water damage, the residents and employees had been forced to move into an already occupied facility. Employees felt cramped and annoyed, he says, and pettiness abounded.

To help the workers regain a positive attitude, Mr. Weaver asked each person this question: Why do you do this work?

“People don’t work in nursing because it pays so much or it’s glamorous or it’s easy,” he says. “As they heard the question you could see their attitude change. They could see the reasons why they needed to work together, to put aside difficulties and compromise, and residents were treated better.”

Remembering why you are in a business can help you manage stress, Mr. Weaver says.

While working on his dissertation, Rick Best, now a health-services scientist for Lockheed Martin, researched stress among nurses who work with veterans, a group that faces high demands with low resources. One might have expected elevated levels of burnout. But there were high levels of satisfaction.

“The meaning they got from their job was high,” says Mr. Best. “They went into the profession of nursing to help people. As a consequence, they derived much meaning from what they were doing, and they were better able to handle stress.”

Reduce your expectations. Given how much energy employees devote to their job, there can be quite a few expectations wrapped up in work. Workers often look to employers for career, socialization, and personal and intellectual growth opportunities.

“With so many expectations, it’s no wonder that work can’t meet all of that. So we get disappointed, but I don’t know that work could fulfill all those things,” says Ken Pinnock, associate director of employee relations and services at the University of Denver.

Due to so many layoffs in the last few years, many have lost friends and colleagues, and have realized that job security, taken for granted at times, is gone. There have also been cuts when it comes to extras, such as educational opportunities, celebrations and room for career advancement.

There can be an element of loss when employees realize that the workplace has changed. However, personal and professional goals can still be pursued without an employer’s support.

“The way back from this is to try to gain perspective about work, realizing that we are still ultimately in charge of our careers and work, and we don’t have to turn to our employers to develop ourselves, or look to them to be responsible for us,” Mr. Pinnock says.

Look at “challenges,” not “problems.” Rather than perceiving problems at work, look at them as challenges.

“The people who approach work as an opportunity to learn are much more satisfied with their jobs and performance, and find themselves eager to take on new challenges,” Mr. Weaver says. “They aren’t trying to prove that they are the smartest. They are more likely to learn from their own experiences and mistakes.”

Setting intermediate goals can also help workers derive a sense of accomplishment, and keep pace with longer-term targets, Mr. Best says.

Write to Ruth Mantell at ruth.mantell@dowjones.com

Ruth Mantell is a reporter for MarketWatch.

Gary Carter, Hall Of Famer And Mets Hero, Dies Of Brain Cancer At 57

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:02:39 +0000

Story By: by Bill Chappell

Gary Carter of the New York Mets looks on during a game in the 1989 season. The star of the Mets’ 1986 World Series win died Thursday, after a fight with brain cancer.

Gary Carter, the former Major League Baseball catcher who helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series, has died of brain cancer at 57. In a career marked by tenacity â and the ability to hit homeruns â Carter was chosen for 11 All Star teams.

Carter’s heroics helped the Mets come back to an improbable victory in their epic World Series against Boston â he singled and scored a crucial run, moments before teammate Mookie Wilson hit a ball that rolled through the legs of the Red Sox’ Bill Buckner. The Mets went on to win the championship.

In recent years, Carter had been coaching Palm Beach Atlantic University’s baseball team. He managed to pay the team a visit before their season opener just two weeks ago, despite being weakened by his illness.

In New York, WFAN’s website posted part of a statement from Carter’s family, in which his daughter wrote, “I am deeply saddened to tell you all that my precious dad went to be with Jesus today at 4:10 pm. This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to write in my entire life but I wanted you all to know.”

Carter is the only player in baseball’s history to hit two homeruns in both a World Series game and an All Star game, the AP reports. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.

Carter’s death comes one day after the Bleacher Report published a story lauding him as the greatest Mets catcher in history. Here’s a sampling of their praise:

“As a Met, Carter nailed about 27 percent of would-be base stealers.

“Carter was the team leader on a team of team leaders. The 1986 Mets included Keith Hernandez, Howard Johnson, Mookie Wilson and Ron Darling. Any one of them was capable of being team captain.”

“Carter came through when it counted the most. He was not going to make the final out of the 1986 World Series. Down to his final strike, he singled off Boston Red Sox right-hander Calvin Schiraldi and the rest is history.”

Carter’s career began with the Montreal Expos, and continued in New York. He then played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. He played behind the plate for most of his career, but the versatile Carter also spent time in the outfield, as well as playing first and third base.

Lowdown on the 2012 Brit nominees

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:02:39 +0000

From household names to newcomers, we take an affectionate (and sometimes irreverent) look at all 46 artists nominated for the 2012 Brit Awards.

Brief bio: Prolific poster boy of alternative country, who once described his music as "a Hallmark card if it was written in disappointment".

Nominated for: International male

What they say: "The caricature painted of him over the years of a difficult, moody rock star with a ferocious appetite for drugs and booze is light years away from the polite, friendly, open man sipping a cup of tea in the sunshine." [The Quietus]

What we say: We're still waiting for Ryan to form a supergroup with Bryan and Oleta. They could call it The Adams Family.

Brief bio: One-woman saviour of the British record industry, whose voice literally exploded halfway through 2011.

Nominated for: Best British female, Best British single (Someone Like You), Best British album (21)

What they say: "She can seethe, sob, rasp, swoop, lilt and belt, in ways that draw more attention to the song than to the singer." [New York Times]

What we say: She hates to turn up out of the blue, uninvited… but the Brits is certain to welcome Adele back with open arms. And a few trophies.

Brief bio: Sheffield musical prodigies, led by kitchen sink wordsmith Alex Turner. Their first album was the UK's fastest-selling debut in history until it was overtaken by Susan Boyle.

Nominated for: Best group

They say: "Being up there in the limelight is something that didn't come naturally to me at all. But now I'm doing stupid crowd participation things. I have started to enjoy that side of things." [Alex Turner, speaking to 6 Music]

What we say: Turner says he's stopped writing about "chip shops" and "taxi ranks" but his dry wit hasn't dried up. See, for example, the title track to their latest album Suck It And See: "That's not a skirt, girl, that's a sawn-off shotgun… and I can only hope you've got it aimed at me."

Brief bio: Booty-shaking, record-breaking, man-baiting, Grammy-taking, hit-creating mother-of-one. Quite popular.

Nominated for: International female

What they say: "Such was her long-stemmed beauty, as she prowled and strutted in search of her missing skirt, that among the audience of 170,000 people there were young men who passed out standing up, their eyes wide open." [Telegraph]

What we say: According to the lyrics of 1+1, Beyonce "don't know much about algebra", but she's definitely got talent where it counts.

Brief bio: Innovative Icelandic musician, multimedia artist and noise provocateur. Her latest album, Biophilia, is available as a series of interactive iPad apps.

Nominated for: International female

She says: "How I hear music is more related to nature. It's not related to some Christian German guys, Bach and Beethoven. I don't mean that in a bad way. I totally respect Christians and Germans, it's just that I think there should be versatility." [National Geographic]

What we say: If Bjork wins for her latest album Biophilia it will, by implication, mean the first ever Brit award for featured vocalist Sir David Attenborough.

Brief bio: Consultant-turned-rapper-turned-crooner, whose austerity anthem I Need A Dollar tapped into the mood of a nation.

Nominated for: International male, International breakthrough

What they say: "He is an informed conversationalist, speaking calmly on all manner of topics, from breakdancing to Noam Chomsky." [Telegraph]

What we say: It's a good thing Aloe adopted a stage name – Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III would be hard to engrave on a statue.

Brief bio: The Harold Pinter of dubstep, known for minimalist soundscapes punctuated by long… pauses. Not to be confused with the US tennis player.

Nominated for: Best British male

What they say: "On one hand, I don't understand this at all. On the other, it'sï»¿ just incredible music". [Comment on Blake's YouTube page]

What we say: Like Sudoku or a bank heist, James Blake's album is difficult but rewarding.

Brief bio: Revitalised Britpop survivors, fronted by musical polymath Damon Albarn.

Recipients of: Outstanding contribution to music

They say: "I've been to the Brits only two or three times [and] I felt slightly guilty about winning. I was worried that people would think we were spoilt brats. This time, sod it, I'm just going to lap it up I think." [Guitarist Graham Coxon, talking to The Daily Record]

What we say: Blur's outstanding contribution prize comes five years after arch-rivals Oasis took home the trophy. So that's that argument settled.

Brief bio: AKA Justin Vernon, whose moody debut For Emma, Forever Ago was famously recorded alone, in a snowbound log cabin. The self-titled follow-up won Vernon a Grammy for best new artist.

Nominated for: Best international male, international breakthrough

What they say: "Amorphous and triumphant – a haze of acoustic guitars, airy synthesizers and tumbling drums floating beneath Vernon's hallucinogenic yowl, like two stratus clouds overlapping in a dream" [Washington Post]

What we say: Bon Iver's success has led to the creation of tribute band Bon Joviver, who cover soft rock classics with Vernon's distinctively spectral harmonies.

Brief bio: Enigmatic singer-songwriter whose latest record is a concept album about snow. Her debut single, Wuthering Heights, was the first British number one to be both written and sung by a woman.

Nominated for: Best British female

She says: "I'm really looking forward to taking a break." [Huffington Post]

What we say: Glaciers move faster than Kate Bush's release schedule, so the appearance of two albums in 2011 made her Brits nomination almost a certainty.

Brief bio: Bird-like Twickenham singer with a voice like a hurricane. Her self-titled debut album was nominated for a Mercury in 2011.

Nominated for: British breakthrough act

What they say: "It almost feels like going into a trance when I sing." [Interview Magazine]

What we say: Anna Calvi wrote the bulk of her album in her parents attic – she must have had lofty ambitions [you're fired - ed].

Brief bio: South London dance duo Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status). Their mixture of rave, rock and ribcage-rattling bass won them a headline slot on Glastonbury's West Holts stage, where Saul celebrated his 30th birthday.

Nominated for: Best group

What they say: "Cherry-picks the chunkiest, most accessible, lowest-common-denominator features of half a dozen genres and splices them together into a Frankenstein's monster of an album, in which the modern Prometheus is lurching forward to catch the kitchen sink he's just been thrown." [Guardian]

What we say: One of only two British dance acts with a nomination, despite a resurgence for the genre in 2011. Unlikely to win, nonetheless.

Brief bio: Chart-toppling giants of soft rock, whose latest album hit number one in more than 30 countries. Frontman Chris Martin has two main lyrical themes: "Everything is going to be OK" and "I'm very sorry".

Nominated for: Best British album (Mylo Xyloto)

What they say: "Coldplay's semi-experimental approach to arena anthems has made them one of the most commercially successful rock band of the 2000s." [Billboard]

What we say: Chris Martin says he "made up" the words Mylo Xyloto and that we, the listeners, should determine the meaning. Bet he's a nightmare at Scrabble.

Brief bio: Big-hearted poets of English suburbia. Their fifth album, Build A Rocket, Boys! was an understated, tender reaction to the success of their Mercury-winning breakthrough The Seldom Seen Kid.

Nominated for: Best group

They say: "You can't completely ignore the fact that when you've had a bit of success, people – especially financiers – are expecting more of the same, but we didn't let it change the way we wrote." [Frontman Guy Garvey, Paste Magazine]

What we say: Garvey got in trouble with his band when he drunkenly announced the title of his album on radio. Imagine what secrets he might give away after a night of free record company booze at the Brits.

Brief bio: Garrulous dance guru, whose stage name derives from the fact his initials are E.G. (Elliot Gleave). His third album, Playing In The Shadows, debuted at number one.

Nominated for: Best British single (Changed The Way You Kissed Me)

He says: "This album was aimed at getting me into arenas. And it has." [This Is London]

What we say: Hit single Stay Awake features the world's worst product endorsement deal, as Example promises to "stick around like Elastoplast".

Brief bio: Leslie Feist from Nova Scotia, purveyor of quirky, textured folk-pop. Her career received a boost when Apple chose the lighthearted single 1-2-3-4 for an iPod commercial.

Nominated for: Best international female

What they say: "Her voice shines in a downcast way, drawing just the right amount of emotion from the lyrics, never overwrought or melodramatic but potent nonetheless." [New Zealand Herald]

What we say: When Shia LeBeouf insisted on playing Feist's album on the set of Transformers 3, director Michael Bay stormed off the set. Is there any way we could book Feist's next tour around the production schedule for Transformers 4?

Brief bio: Seattle five-piece, whose rustic harmonies and flashes of psychedelia recall Fairport Convention and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Nominated for: Best international group

What they say: "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and beards" [Spin]

What we say: Hirsuites you, sir.

Brief bio: Pale-faced musical foghorn Florence Welch and her ragtag band of minstrels. Fond of percussion. Mad as a hatstand.

Nominated for: Best British female, Best British album (Ceremonials)

She says: "I wanted to call this whole record just Violence. A violent emotion. You can feel things violently. It's a beautiful word." [USA Today]

What we say: This is the sort of music you hear just before they sacrifice you to the volcano gods.

Brief bio: Rock survivors, who rose from the ashes of Nirvana and fought their way through the ranks. One of their 2011 shows triggered volcanic tremors in New Zealand.

Nominated for: Best international group

Dave Grohl says: "It's weird when there's a kid on the bill who comes up and says, 'Your band was my first concert'. You just think, 'Oh no. I'm that guy, now? What am I, Gandalf?'" [Entertainment Weekly]

What we say: Rock and Roll isn't dead, it's just hibernating in Dave Grohl's beard.

Brief bio: LA indie pop quartet. Their background as jingle writers shines through in their supremely catchy pop hooks.

Nominated for: International breakthrough

What they say: "Foster The People make infectiously good music, don't stick to a formula and make you yearn to lie on your back in the middle of a field, feeling the hot sun streaming down on your face." [Music OMH]

What we say: The band's breakthrough hit Pumped Up Kicks is the best pop song about a high school massacre since I Don't Like Mondays.

Brief bio: Former Oasis guitarist and his furious eyebrows, now striking out with solo project Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Nominated for: Best British male

He says: "It is a new soundâ¦ but only from taking things away. The excesses of Oasis, like the extra guitars, I just took 'em away. I didn't add anything." [Music Radar]

What we say: The most famous roadie the Inspiral Carpets ever had.

Brief bio: French DJ-turned-producer, whose thumping dance tracks are fronted by R&B royalty from Usher to Rihanna.

Nominated for: Best international male

What he says: "I think America was always scared of dance music. We came with a new sound, creating that bridge between the electro culture that comes from Europe and the urban culture that is more American – it's such magic." [Idolator]

What we say: Would you recognise David Guetta if he fell out of a hammock labelled "This is David Guetta's Hammock"?

Brief bio: The only person to have won the Mercury Prize twice, Polly Jean Harvey's latest album narrates the grim effects of war on generations of English soldiers.

Nominated for: Best British album (Let England Shake)

She says: "It took four years of writing before I ended up with the songs on this record, and I had to discard a huge amount of material." [BBC]

What we say: In the 1990s, Radio 1 presenter Emma Freud introduced her as "PJ and Harvey". Sadly, Polly's version of Let's Get Ready To Rhumble wasn't a patch on the original.

Brief bio: Two titans of hip-hop, joining forces for a gold-plated album of rap duets. The gold-plating was literal for anyone who invested in the deluxe CD.

Nominated for: Best international group

What they say: "Just two guys sitting on a stoop, telling stories, lamenting the mistakes they've made, expressing hope that the next generation might learn something from them." [New York Times]

What we say: The rappers also go by the names Hova and Yeezy which, coincidentally, are the noises we made last time we had an asthma attack.

Brief bio: Fright-wigged pop banshee, who released the best-selling debut album of 2011.

Nominated for: Best British female, British breakthrough act, Best British single (Price Tag)

She says: "I see my music as Emotional Therapeutic Pop music that bleeds into loads of different genres." [Seventeen]

What we say: "It ain't about the cha-ching, cha-ching; Ain't about the ba-bling, ba-bling" is now the official slogan of the Eurozone.

Brief bio: Perennially popular male vocal harmony group, already hard at work on their fourth album.

Nominated for: Best British single (She Makes Me Wanna)

What they say: "They may be more popular than Simon Cowell could possibly have imagined – he turned them down twice, you know – but JLS are no musical innovators." [BBC Music]

What we say: Marvin! Oritse! Aston! JB! They tend to sing about "da club" a lot, as this is where the Honeys regularly spend the evening.

Brief bio: Respected producer, who gives life to the music of Laura Marling, Kings Of Leon, Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris, amongst others.

Recipient of: Best British producer (awarded last week)

What they say: "He's very, very patient, and he's got a very good ear. He's the first person I go to with my songs." [Laura Marling]

What we say: A hugely talented producer, Johns learnt the trade from his father, Glyn Johns, who sat behind the mixing desk for The Eagles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Brief bio: Grandiloquent rockers, based in Leicester. Claimed their fourth album Velociraptor! would change people's lives.

Nominated for: Best group

They say: "Velociraptors used to hunt in packs of four. They were the rock'n'roll band of the dinosaurs." [Guitarist Serge Pizzorno in the NME]

What we say: Oh come on, everyone knows the most rock'n'roll dinosaur is the Brachylophosaurus.

Brief bio: Country trio formed in Nashville (where else?) six years ago. A big crossover act in the US, they recently won the Grammy for best country album.

Nominated for: Best international group

The band says: "We won't just throw a fiddle on the song if it doesn't really call for it." [The Banter]

What we say: Lady A's perfect smiles are no accident – guitarist David Haywood's dad invented teeth bleaching in the 1980s.

Brief bio: Shy, subtle, retiring performer of popular song. Once attended an awards ceremony in a dress made of meat.

Nominated for: Best international female

What they say: "Excess is Gaga's riskiest musical gamble, but it's also her greatest weapon… While most 21st-Century pop stars pulverize their imperfections into an Auto-Tuned slurry, she boldly wears her audacity like a meat dress." [Spin]

What we say: Why don't people make more fuss about the meat dress?

Brief bio: Long-legged pop waif, born Victoria Louise Lott in 1991. Skipped school to get a recording contract at the age of 15 and earned her first platinum disc three years later.

Nominated for: Best British single (All About Tonight)

What they say: "Even with a newfound smokiness to her vocals, she delivers all the passion of a student singing in school assembly." [Independent]

What we say: For her new album Pixie wrote a tribute to Stevie Wonder called Stevie On The Radio, then persuaded Stevie Wonder to play harmonica on it. How postmodern.

Brief bio: Wan, shy folk singer from Hampshire. The surprise winner of last year's best British female award, she released her haunting third album A Creature I Don't Know in September.

Nominated for: Best British female

What they say: "While she may not be a particularly revealing performer, she's an extremely commanding one." [Pitchfork]

What we say: Last year, Laura gave her Brits trophy to her mum. Another one would really tie the room together.

Brief bio: Briefly popular chart rock band, whose career was revitalised by radio-friendly disco stomper Moves Like Jagger.

Nominated for: Best international group

They say: "Only Jagger has the moves like Jagger. But it's attainable… I don't think anyone could claim to have the moves like James Brown, or the moves like Michael Jackson, or the moves like Prince." [singer Adam Levine on NPR]

What we say: No doubt inspired by Mick Jagger's anti-establishment politics, Maroon 5 recently created their own flavour of iced tea.

Brief bio: Hawaiian-born soul star whose backing band are tighter than Lycra. Co-wrote Cee-Lo's Forget You and scored a trio of number ones with solo singles Just The Way You Are, Grenade and The Lazy Song.

Nominated for: Best international male

What they say: "His skill is an ease with both oldâfashioned songcraft and hipâhop swagger." [Guardian]

What we say: Fans of genetic improbability will be pleased to know that Bruno recently tweeted "I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant".

Brief bio: A choir of (you guessed it) Military Wives, put together for a TV show. Their love song, Wherever You Are, sold 631,000 copies and was the 2011 Christmas Number One.

Nominated for: Best British single (Wherever You Are)

They say: "I can't believe that I can actually sit here on Christmas Day and say I've got a single out that is number one… it feels unreal." [Choir member Emma Williams]

What we say: The best chart act the armed forces have produced since Robson and Jerome.

Brief bio: Outlandish, Trinidadian-born musician who rose to fame by upstaging the likes of Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey with guests verses on their singles.

Nominated for: International breakthrough

What they say: "One of Minaj's most endearing qualities is, despite the funny faces, the fact that she's an MC with her heart on her sleeve and a sad story to tell." [No Ripcord]

What we say: Nicki has recorded a concept album about her alter-ego Roman Zolanski. We are not making this stuff up.

Brief bio: Armed with a guitar and tender vocals, Morrison tackled the death of his father on third album The Awakening, which quietly charted at number one last autumn.

Nominated for: Best British male

He says: "I'd love to do a side-project where I'm not James Morrison, I just put a vocal on a fat beat or something." [Female First]

What we say: A deserving nominee, given his cross-generational appeal, but Morrison remains as popular and edgy as a facecloth.

Brief bio: Perma-grinning X Factor nice guy who scored two number one singles in 2011. Your mum likes him.

Nominated for: Best British single (Heart Skips A Beat)

He says: "That's probably the best thing about being famous… you are able to help and support other people and make a difference." [The Banter]

What we say: Cliff Richard for the 21st Century.

Brief bio: X-Factor endorsed boy band. Average age 18-and-a-half.

Nominated for: Best British single (What Makes You Beautiful)

What they say: "Aimed solidly at teenage girls (and boys) who are waiting for somebody to be secretly in love with them, What Makes You Beautiful is so unthreatening it might have to think twice about holding hands." [NME]

What we say: One Direction have fans who call themselves The Directionettes. They throw carrots at the band when they play live. Carrots.

Brief bio: Kermit-voiced rapper, born in Hackney. Formerly known as Stephen Manderson, he has transcended his past as an "angry youth" to become one of the UK's most successful hip-hop artists.

Nominated for: Best British male

What they say: "It's easy to understand the appeal of Professor Green, the gobby class clown who's always disrupting lessons with a crude comment. Problem is, he could really do with some fresher jokes." [NME]

What we say: In his number one single Read All About It, Professor Green confesses: "I write songs I can't listen to." Don't be so hard on yourself, son, they're not that bad.

Brief bio: Cartoonishly pretty, enigmatic femme fatale with a line in alluring noir pop. Despite the success of her debut single Video Games, she is plagued by accusations of inauthenticity by critics incensed that she (gasp) changed her name.

Nominated for: International breakthrough

She says: "I love to sing and I really love to write, but in terms of being onstage, I'm not that comfortable." [GQ]

What we say: Basically a musical incarnation of The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan.

Brief bio: Bajan pop princess with an astonishing work rate. Rihanna has released six albums in seven years, and played 10 dates at the O2 arena in 2011.

Nominated for: Best international female

What they say: "I wish no ill will against Rihanna and her friends. Perhaps they could acquaint themselves with a greater God." [Northern Irish farmer and local councillor Alan Graham, who put an end to the singer's raunchy video shoot on his land last October]

What we say: Needs no introduction. A mainstay of the Brits and a phenomenally successful artist. She won this prize last year, and could easily do it again in 2012.

Brief bio: Former medical student with a knack for writing catchy, classy R&B hooks. A stellar 2011 saw her reach number one with Professor Green before launching her solo career with top 10 hit Heaven.

Nominated for: British breakthrough act

Recipient of: Critics' Choice award

She says: "If the sun is out, the songs I write are usually rubbish. The best songs come around 2am for me." [Orange Music]

What we say: Aberdeen's other best-known exports are Annie Lennox and granite. Sande models her career on one and her hair on the other.

Brief bio: A little bit jazz, a little bit hip-hop, Ed Sheeran is a songwriting prodigy who built his fan base organically through extensive touring. Result: 791,000 albums sold in 2011.

Nominated for: Best British male, British breakthrough act, best British single (A Team), best British album (+)

What they say: "The incessant melodrama can grate, but Sheeran's voice, alternating between soulful huskiness and stuttering sing-speak, is a treat." [Telegraph]

What we say: Ed's fans are like putty in his hands. Hormonal teenage putty.

Brief bio: Wily rock quartet and saviours-du-jour of British guitar music, who mix blistering garage rock with brooding odes to Post Break-Up Sex.

Nominated for: British breakthrough act

What they say: "Guitarist Freddie Cowan is so toffee-nosed he's 14th in line to the throne and gets carried to gigs on a sedan chair." [NME]

What we say: The Vaccines played more than 50 festival dates in 2011 and are slowly turning into falafel.

Brief bio: Five boys next door with a chart-friendly line in ravepop. Vaguely more "rough" than JLS or One Direction, The Wanted have scored two Top 10 albums in as many years.

Nominated for: Best British single (Glad You Came)

They say: "We have to remember that as well as the horny mums who like us, we're writing to girls too, so we don't want to go too overboard." [Jay McGuiness, speaking to Digital Spy]

What we say: They may be heart-throbs but "I decided you look well on me" is the most clunky, unromantic lyric of the year.

Want Press Coverage? Give Me Some Money

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:03:51 +0000

By PAUL BECKETT

Ajay Goyal is a serious, independent candidate contesting for a Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh.
Never heard of him? Neither, probably, have a lot of people in Chandigarh because when it came to getting press coverage for his campaign he was faced with a simple message: If you want press, you have to pay.

Paul Beckett

So far, he says, he’s been approached by about 10 people – some brokers and public relations managers acting on behalf of newspaper owners, some reporters and editors – with the message that he’ll only get written about in the news pages for a fee. We’re not talking advertising; we’re talking news.

One broker offered three weeks of coverage in four newspapers for 10 lakh rupees ($20,000). A reporter and a photographer from a Chandigarh newspaper told him that for 1.5 lakh rupees ($3,000) for them and a further 3 lakh rupees ($6,000) for other reporters, they could guarantee coverage in up to five newspapers for two weeks.

“We would do good coverage for you,” he says they told him. All of those who approached him either were from national Hindi language papers or regional papers, Mr. Goyal says.

“You want a front page photo for free? This is something people pay for.”

In one case, he went along to see what would happen: a press release he submitted full of falsehoods – claiming he had campaigned in places he had never been, for instance – ran verbatim. One thing he has never seen on his real campaign: a reporter there to cover the story.

“It’s disappointing,” Mr. Goyal says. “What good is literacy and education if people have no access to real news, investigation, skepticism or a questioning reporter.”

At the nexus of corruption in India, the nation’s newspapers usually play either vigilante cop exposing wrongdoing in the public interest (on a good day, at a few publications) or spineless patsy killing stories on the orders of powerful advertisers. Many papers also engage in practices that cross the ethical line between advertising and editorial in a way that is opaque, if not downright obscure, to readers.

Special Coverage: India Elections

See news, analysis and opinion from The Wall Street Journal on India’s elections.

But it is of another order of magnitude to see reporters, editors and newspaper owners holding the democratic process to ransom. A free (in every sense) press is an integral part of a vibrant democracy. A corrupt press is both symptom and perpetrator of a rotten democracy.

“I’m not saying all media is biased but there is a growing sense in people’s minds that a lot of the media is biased,” says Anil Bairwal, national coordinator of National Election Watch. “Some do it in a sublime manner and some do it openly.”

So why are we surprised when the voter turnout is so low, despite the much-touted surge of political awareness among the young and post-Mumbai? It’s all part and parcel of the public disgust with the political system and the pillars of the Establishment that support that system as well. For every newly-minted reform-minded, politically aware voter, there are probably hundreds of jaded citizens who just decide the heck with it.

How widespread is the practice of pay per say?

The best-known English-language dailies typically don’t do it so blatantly, candidates and others involved in the elections say. Rather, those papers are more likely to hue closely to one major party or the other, making it tough for candidates who don’t fit the papers’ view of the world to be heard. But in the Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati media, to name a few, the practice is widespread, candidates say.

N. Gopalaswami, retired Chief Election Commissioner, says in an interview, “This is not something that can be ignored. It is not just a few apparent cases, it is much more than that.”

He has heard of newspapers proferring a rate card – one price for positive coverage, another for not negative coverage. The commission heard complaints in both 2007 and 2008 about candidates being charged for coverage. Among them, the national Communist parties who don’t have the deep coffers to spend on campaigns.

In Mumbai, a city appropriately geared to commerce, politicians are faced with multiple payment options. Consider these phrases from newspaper editors and brokers, which I culled from campaigners:

“You want a front page photo for free? This is something people pay for.”

“If you want a picture in there or if you want a story, we have to be paid.”

“We’re going to publish the interview, but you need to buy 5,000 copies of our paper.”

“1.2 lakhs ($2,400) for the next two weeks and I will take care of all that coverage.”

—Paul Beckett is the WSJ’s bureau chief in New Delhi

Japão tem déficit recorde na balança comercial

JoshB — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:03:51 +0000

Por TAKASHI NAKAMICHI, DE TÓQUIO

O Japão registrou um déficit recorde em sua balança comercial em janeiro, com a desaceleração econômica global e o iene forte prejudicando as exportações, enquanto as importações de combustíveis continuaram a crescer.

Os dados, que mostram déficit de 1,475 trilhão de ienes (US$ 18,5 bilhões), divulgados na segunda-feira pelo Ministério da Fazenda, ressaltam as persistentes dificuldades de uma economia pobre em recursos e dependente das exportações.

A força do iene e a crise da dívida na Europa atingiram a demanda pelos produtos japoneses, em especial na Ásia; ao mesmo tempo, o Japão precisa de mais combustível importado para gerar energia, pois muitas de suas usinas nucleares estão inativas desde o terremoto e tsunami de março.

Alguns economistas agora julgam que o Japão está rumando em 2012 para um segundo ano consecutivo de déficit comercial. Qualquer recuperação econômica no período de janeiro a março, depois da contração anualizada de 2,3% de outubro a dezembro, seria leve na melhor das hipóteses, dizem eles.

“A balança comercial ficará no vermelho este ano”, disse Toshihiro Nagahama, economista-chefe do Dai-Ichi-Life Research Institute. “Os aumentos estruturais nas importações estão ganhando impulso, enquanto os exportadores estão ativamente transferindo suas fábricas para o exterior.”

Em paralelo, na segunda-feira a Standard & Poor’s Corp. reafirmou a classificação da dívida soberana japonesa como AA-menos, e manteve a perspectiva negativa, colocando o primeiro-ministro Yoshihiko Noda sob pressão ainda maior para aumentar impostos e melhorar a grave situação fiscal do país.

“A classificação da dívida soberana do Japão se justifica pela sua ampla posição líquida em ativos no exterior, seu sistema financeiro relativamente forte e sua economia diversificada”, disse a S&P em um comunicado. “Além disso, o iene é uma reserva internacional de importância crucial.”

No segundo semestre, o déficit comercial poderá diminuir devido a uma esperada recuperação econômica mundial, mas “é preciso cautela, pois o momento e o ritmo da redução do déficit dependem muito do preço dos combustíveis e da oscilação da taxa de câmbio”, disse Yoshimasa Maruyama, economista sênior da Itochu Corp.

O déficit correspondeu basicamente às previsões dos economistas consultados pela Dow Jones Newswires e a Nikkei, mas deixou longe o recorde anterior de 967,9 bilhões de ienes de janeiro de 2009, no auge da crise financeira global. O novo número também foi três vezes maior que o registrado no mesmo mês do ano passado. Esses dados, no formato atual, remontam a janeiro de 1979.

As exportações japonesas caíram 9,3% em relação a um ano antes para 4,51 trilhões de ienes, o quarto mês consecutivo de declínio, devido ao recuo na demanda de aço e semicondutores, disse o Ministério.

Mesmo considerando a desaceleração econômica global e o impacto dos feriados do Ano Novo Lunar, o comércio com os países asiáticos foi mais fraco que o esperado, disse Takahide Kiuchi, economista chefe da Nomura Securities.

As exportações para a China caíram 20,1% no ano, a maior queda desde uma contração de 27,6% em agosto de 2009, disse o ministro. O déficit comercial do Japão com a China em janeiro atingiu um recorde de 587,9 bilhões de ienes. As exportações para a Ásia como um todo caíram 13,7%, a queda mais acentuada desde uma contração de 15,0% em outubro de 2009.

Mas as exportações para os Estados Unidos subiram 0,6% no ano, o terceiro aumento mensal consecutivo, devido a maiores vendas de carros e de maquinário para construção, segundo os dados.

Enquanto isso, as importações de gás natural líquido, petróleo bruto e carvão contribuíram para elevar o total de importações em 9,8%, para 5,985 trilhões de ienes, segundo os dados. Foi o 25o mês seguido de aumento nas importações.

(Contribuíram Mitsuru Obe e Alex Martin.)