BUSINESS

With billions of dollars in her name, Gina Rinehart, Australia and the world's richest woman, attracts media attention whether she likes it or not. In 2012, she again hogged the limelight because of her court battles with her three estranged adult children, her views on wealth, corporate skirmishes and her oodles of money.

Japan's population shrank by an estimated 212,000 people in 2012, claimed the nation's Health Ministry on Monday, as concerns continue to mount the nation's rapidly aging population and low birth rates.

Even if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the overnight cash rate several times in 2012, bringing it down to a three-year low of 3 per cent, several sectors continue to clamor for more key lending rate reductions in 2013.

Yesterday, Dan promised to write more about lead and the deflationary prophecies of John Exter. I've muscled in on today's Daily Reckoning, and will be here tomorrow too, so make sure you read the weekend edition for Dan's follow up from yesterday.

Intuition was telling me something was going on these past few days (of 2012) in the gold market. Our investment team was watching gold and gold stocks take a tumble for no obvious reason.

The RBA's interest rate cuts don't seem to be working. It's a bit player in the global currency war, and Australia's economy will suffer the consequences. Manufacturing's woes are well known. But the RBA's move to ultra-low interest rates was supposed to perk up Australian house prices, and therefore the housing market.

On the 3rd of January, Starbucks Corp. informed that it would launch its first café in Vietnam in February 2013. The decision comes as the Seattle-based company is trying to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Australian sharemarket continues to rise, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up by 0.8 per cent or 38.5 pts to 4761.4. This adds to yesterday's 1.25 per cent improvement while the ASX 200 has cracked through the 4700 point level for the first time since July 2011. Since hitting a low in June last year, the local market has improved by almost 18 per cent. Markets in both China and Japan were closed today.

Its confidence partly boosted by the good showing so far of the Lumia 920, Nokia is aiming to break new grounds by jumping into the global tablet competition, currently the turf that follows the dictates of iOS and Android devices.

The second batch of Nexus 4 deliveries has reached their end destinations and many were elated that the choke on Google’s supply chain seems to be freeing up. But one gripe appears to be emerging – the ‘glitter effect’ on the phone’s back cover was nowhere to be found.

Yesterday the Australian share market started the first day of the 2013 trading year in positive territory up 58 points, its best start to a new year since 2001. Helped by the news that the US House of Representatives finally passed the Senate's 'fiscal cliff' bill this afternoon helping to keep the market positive.

When it's midnight and there's no one around to kiss, you take what you can get. Your editor has always employed this strategy on New Year's Eve.

On the 2nd of January, official data showed that Macau saw gambling revenue increase approximately 14 percent to about $38 billion in 2012. The figures also indicated that Macau casino revenue jumped as much as 20 percent in December, surprisingly topping analysts' estimates. The results support the Macau's title of the world's biggest gambling market.

Apple will reportedly issue new smartphones in colourful casings – three in one-tone: pink, yellow, blue; and the rest in two-tone: white & silver and black & slate. These new handsets will be called iPhone 5S and are set for a June 2013 release.

Shares of Gandalbie Metals (ASX: GBG) jumped 10 per cent on Wednesday after the company made its first shipment of magnetite iron concentrate to China. The commodity was sources from its Karara project.

You're going to read a lot about the 'fiscal cliff' over the next few days. But not in The Daily Reckoning. We could care less. Full speed ahead and over the cliff we go, we say! It would be the best solution for everyone.

Application developers found something odd in their app usage logs which referenced to a new iPhone identifier - iPhone 6.1 with iOS 7 operating system.

The Digital Age continues in 2013 and will possibly span more decades until everything is about robotics, droids, and artificial intelligence. In 2012, computers have evolved into touchscreen notebooks with flexible form modes such as separating from its keys or forming a tent for better movie experience. Mobile phones have reached the smartphone era with screens responding to touch, social network access, Wi-Fi connection, and several more applications using the smallest sensors.

The use of Wi-Fi cuts down incidents of stumbling around cords and wires at home, in the office or school. It also covers a larger area with more users than using standard wired router. The technology of wireless connection beats almost any odds using the Internet but there are certain things that can slow down the connection or weaken its signal which is a bummer.

Welcome to 2013! The Australian sharemarket had its best start to a new year since 2001, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by an impressive 1.2 per cent or 58.3 pts to 4722.9. The House of Representatives in the U.S finally passed the Senate's 'fiscal cliff' bill this afternoon helping to keep the market positive. This was considered to be somewhat of a compromise between the Democrats and Republicans. Tax increases will be introduced but for the higher income earners (+$400,00...

The man looked Russian. He was sitting opposite us at the Pain Quotidien, a café at St Pancras station in London. He was polite about it... but wished to register a complaint with the waiter for neglecting him.

Greg Canavan's new 'Fuse is Lit' film has certainly lit a fire inside the belly of many Aussies.

China's manufacturing activity surprisingly expanded at the fastest rate in approximately 19 month, according to a key manufacturing index released on the 31st of December.

Jailbreaking an iPhone is about having maximum control over the device. This includes tweaking a lot of things in iPhone which otherwise the original iOS prevents. Another benefit is the ability to download free apps for iPhone instead of purchasing it from Apple Store. However, one of the major sources of pirated apps for iOS devices is gone. Hackulous, which developed Installous, has finally shut down after years in service.

The year 2012 closed its tech world with highs and lows and the New Year 2013 will present new innovations and new devices that will reach old and new markets.

Toyota Motor Corp., the Japan's biggest carmaker, is to pay as much as $1.1 billion to settle a U.S. class action lawsuit based on alleged acceleration issues in its cars.

2012 Christmas was marked by growing economic concerns of Britons. Uncertain economic conditions affected U.K. customers' shopping spree during this holiday season. According to a survey conducted by consumer's association Which?, nearly half of U.K. customers drastically cut back on 2012 Christmas spending and made credit purchases.

Galaxy S3 owners wishing for at least two more solid hours of battery juice can now place their orders on two European online retailers, Mobile Fun in the United Kingdom and Amazon’s operation in Germany.

The Australian share market started the first day of the 2013 trading year in positive territory up 20 points.