Sharp Sees First Loss in Five Decades as Demand Slows

[Coventina]

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Sharp Corp., Japan’s biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display televisions, will post its first loss in more than five decades and cut 1,500 temporary jobs because of falling sales of the devices.

The net loss will probably be 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, Osaka-based Sharp said today. The forecast is worse than a 57.1 billion yen loss median of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg in the past four weeks.

Sharp joins Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp. and NEC Corp. in forecasting losses and cutting jobs as the global recession curbs demand for consumer electronics. Global LCD-TV sales will fall 16 percent this year to $64 billion, the first drop in the industry’s history, according to researcher DisplaySearch.

“The forecast reflects the rapidly worsening business environment in the October-December period and the company clearly expects a similar degree of deterioration in the current quarter,” said Yoji Takeda, who manages about $1.1 billion at RBC Investment (Asia) Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The situation may improve a bit in the coming fiscal year, but it’s highly questionable whether Japanese manufacturers like Sharp can make a profit.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aQUGUVBGh.SE&refer=japan

[fasttense]

1. Where have all the supply-side economists gone?

Why are they NOT creating demand? Didn't they tell us they could create demand simply by making a product and offering it to consumers?

Soooooo, we have a huge supply of cars and other crap. The supply is there. So where is the DEMAND? I demand to know where the demand is.

Start creating some of that very badly needed demand you supply-side economists. Get all your uber wealthy cronies to buy up all the surplus crap. They have enough money to do it, especially the bank CEOs.

Where has all the demand gone? ...Far, far away.

[Bake]

2. Keynesian economics is back in vogue these days.

I heard on NPR that this will be the first real, measurable test of Keynes' theories -- i.e., that whn consumers and business investment slump, government spending can and must step in to fill the void and boost the economy. Makes sense to me ...

Bake