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Every evening, dozens of technicians in blue scrubs at Barnes-Jewish Hospital prepare as many as 56 “case carts,” each containing all the items needed for a patient’s surgery.

To speed the process and minimize snafus, used surgical instruments are placed on a conveyor belt and decontaminated by automatic washers before being sorted by hand. Selected by individual surgeons, the supplies are put on a rolling metal cart and sterilized. An electronic “production control board” directs the process.

The hospital

Sorry, Twilight fans: Edward and Bella’s latest cinematic adventure didn’t actually sell 40 million copies this holiday season.

That’s what Amazon implied in a press release it issued Monday, touting its holiday sales. But the eye-popping figure doesn’t hold up.

"For the holiday time period alone, Amazon customers bought enough copies of Eclipse for Edward Cullen to watch the movie 1,000 times a day for all 109 years of his life," the company wrote.

CNNMoney ran the math on that claim: 1,000 x 365 days in a year x 109 years = a whopping 39.8 million DVDs. And that’s not even counting the extra days in leap years.

When we called to fact-check, Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) backed off on its numbers.

‘"The Amazon stat you inquired about this morning should’ve read ‘year’ not ‘day,’" a company spokeswoman replied via e-mail.

Doing the math that way — 1,000 viewings a year for 109 years — nets a much more reasonable 109,000 Eclipse DVDs sold.

Amazon’s other quirky claims pan out. Here’s the math on them …

"Amazon customers purchased enough snow/tire chains to outfit the entire population of three of America’s top ski cities: Aspen, Breckenridge and Sun Valley."

Working off 2000 census figures, we get these population numbers:

Aspen: 5,914
Breckenridge: 2,408
Sun Valley: 1,427

So Amazon sold at least 9,749 snow & tire chains.

"Amazon customers purchased so many pairs of jeans that if you folded each pair and stacked them on top of each other, the height would be the equivalent of Mt cash advance now. Everest."

This requires some guesstimating. What’s the average height of a pair of folded jeans? Folded once or folded twice?

By happy coincidence, I have a pair of jeans under my desk. I folded it in half twice, the way one typically stores jeans, and measured at the midpoint. It’s a touch shy of two inches.

Mount Everest’s official height is 29,029 feet. That’s 348,348 inches. Divide by 2 and we have just over 174,000 pairs of jeans.

"Amazon customers purchased enough Kyjen Hide-a-Squirrels to hide one toy squirrel everyday for the next 100 years."

Well, this one is easy. 1 squirrel x 365 days x 100 years = 36,500 toy squirrels — plus another 25 for the leap-year days. So that’s 36,525 lucky dogs this holiday season.

"Amazon customers purchased more Philips Norelco shavers this holiday season than the average beard hairs on a man’s face."

This is like counting angels on the head of a pin. Hair-loss info site Keratin.com claims there’s 7,000 - 15,000 hairs in an average beard; Godrej Shaving Cream’s website claims the average is 30,000. No one is citing any sources.

So we’ll say Amazon sold more shavers than snow chains — but probably fewer shavers than Hide-a-Squirrels.

And no matter how you do the math, Eclipse DVDs trumped all else. 

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Taiwan’s central bank said it will step up curbs on the use of exchange-rate derivatives to combat currency speculation by foreigners.

Banks’ holdings of non-deliverable forwards and options in the Taiwan dollar will be limited to 20 percent of their positions in the local currency with immediate effect, the central bank said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. The ceiling was previously one-third. Deliverable forwards are exempt from the restrictions as they are used by local companies to protect earnings against exchange-rate fluctuations, it said.

The change is designed “to maintain order in the currency market and to prevent foreign speculative capital from intervening in the market,” the statement said.

The island’s dollar has appreciated 3.5 percent to NT$30.425 versus the greenback in the past month, Asia’s best performance, and yesterday touched a 13-year high of NT$29.481. The central bank has intervened in the foreign-exchange market on most days for more than six months to check appreciation that may hurt exports, according to currency traders who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Taiwan last month restored curbs on foreign investment in its debt, joining South Korea, Thailand and Brazil in seeking to curb currency gains that threaten export growth. Foreign funds can invest only up to 30 percent of their portfolio in government bonds and money-market products, the Financial Supervisory Commission said Nov. 9, reintroducing limits that were scrapped in 1995.

Developing economies have stepped up attempts to curb volatility in their currencies as near-zero interest rates in the U.S. and Japan spur demand for higher-yielding emerging- market bonds and equities.

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The recall beat continues at Toyota but the auto giant says it thinks the biggest public relations nightmare in its history is behind it.

The automaker, seen by many as the best of its breed, issued recalls 17 times last year to alert owners of more than 700,000 Canadian vehicles about the need for dealer inspections and possible repairs on defective parts or conditions.

It reached the point where some industry watchers felt Toyota was unnecessarily undermining its reputation and entrenching negative perceptions with disclosure and repairs on minor glitches.

They said the notices would just make it harder for Toyota to sell cars and trucks for a longer time.

A few recalls involved parts that rival automakers also used but those rivals didn

The man who refuses to leave Ivory Coast’s presidency faced new threats to his grasp on power after regional leaders threatened to remove him by force if necessary.

Meanwhile, the U.N.’s refugee agency said Saturday that at least 14,000 Ivorians have fled the chaos of their homeland, trekking for days to reach safety in Liberia.

Diplomatic pressure and sanctions have left Laurent Gbagbo increasingly isolated though he has been able to maintain his rule nearly a month after the disputed vote because of the loyalty of security forces and the military.

Even that, though, may disappear if he runs out of money to pay them.

Late Friday, West Africa leaders from the 15-country regional bloc ECOWAS _ the Economic Community of West African States _ threatened to send military intervention into Ivory Coast if incumbent Gbagbo refuses to step down peacefully.

“In the event that Mr. Gbagbo fails to heed this immutable demand of ECOWAS, the Community would be left with no alternative but to take other measures, including the use of legitimate force, to achieve the goals of the Ivorian people,” said a statement from ECOWAS.

James Gbeho, president of ECOWAS said the group of West African leaders was making an “ultimate gesture” to Gbagbo to urge him to make a peaceful exit.

The 15-nation regional bloc of West African states made the decision following a six-hour emergency summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on Ivory Coast as worries mounted that the country that suffered a 2002-2003 civil war could return to conflict.

Gbeho said the bloc would send in a high-level delegation to meet with Gbagbo, and tell him to step down, but did not give details as to when the delegation would go or a deadline for Gbagbo.

The threat of force came on the tail of another serious international reproach, this one from the West African economic and monetary union, which called on the regional central bank to cut off Gbagbo’s access to state coffers.

Gbagbo’s spokesman Ahoua Don Mello on Saturday denounced the decision by the union to give Ouattara’s government signing privileges on state accounts. He called the move “illegal and manifestly beyond their competence.”

The meeting of regional finance ministers that issued the freeze “overstepped its stated prerogatives by interfering in the internal affairs of a member state of the union,” Mello said on state television Friday evening.

Gbagbo’s government has denied rumors that state salaries wouldn’t be paid, and in spite of the financial freeze, civil servants received their paychecks the day before Christmas Eve. But senior diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, say that Gbagbo only has enough reserves to run the state for three months, setting the scene for a drawn-out standoff.

Ivory Coast is the world’s biggest cocoa grower, producing 40 percent of the world’s supply. While a cocoa embargo might have a more immediate impact on Gbagbo’s ability to govern, European and American business interests prevent this from being seriously considered, said African security analyst Peter Pham.

“A cocoa embargo isn’t even on the table,” said Pham, who is the Senior Vice President of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York.

The threat of military intervention may add enough pressure to bring about a swifter resolution, said Pham, though he questioned whether a force could be brought together quickly enough to have an impact.

“Nigeria _ the only real military power in the AU _ is unlikely to have the stomach for a drawn-out military escapade on the eve of their own presidential election,” he said. Nigerian elections will be held in April next year.

Gbagbo has refused to step down from the presidency despite international calls for his ouster from the U savings account payday advance.N., U.S., former colonizer France, the European Union and the African Union. The international community recognizes Alassane Ouattara as the winner, though Gbagbo maintains control of the national military.

In recent days, the United Nations has expressed alarm about the actions of men who are believed to be Gbagbo loyalists. At least 173 deaths have been confirmed in violence over the presidential vote, and the U.N. is warning the number could be greater since it has been unable to investigate all the allegations.

Masked gunmen with rocket launchers have blocked access to what officials believe may be a mass grave site in Ivory Coast, the United Nations said. The world body also reported Thursday that heavily armed forces allied with Gbagbo and joined by masked men, were preventing people from getting to the village of N’Dotre, where the global body said “allegations point to the existence of a mass grave.”

The U.N. did not elaborate on the possible victims, though it has expressed concerns about hundreds of arrests, and dozens of cases of torture and disappearance during the political turmoil since the presidential runoff vote was held nearly a month ago.

Even the top U.N. envoy in the country was stopped at gunpoint while trying to look into reports of human rights abuses, the U.N. deputy human rights commissioner in Geneva said Thursday.

On Saturday, the Geneva-based office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees announced that the agency has “registered 14,000 Ivorian refugees in eastern Liberia who fled in the wake of post-electoral instability in their country for nearly a month now.”

“With their numbers growing, the humanitarian needs are increasing for the mostly women and children refugees as well as for the villagers hosting them,” the agency said in a statement.

“The growing number of new arrivals is impacting communities hosting the refugees. Food supplies are running short despite efforts by the government and humanitarian agencies to bring in more assistance,” the UNHCR said.

Meanwhile, Ouattara continued to assert his legitimacy from the Golf Hotel, where he has taken refuge since the election, protected by 800 U.N. peacekeepers.

“After these long years of crisis, the Ivorian people deserved to rejoice in our democratic advancement,” Ouattara said. “But former president Laurent Gbagbo has decided to turn a new page of violence and uncertainty, aggravating everyday a little more the suffering of Ivorians,” he said in a Christmas Eve address.

Troops loyal to Gbagbo continue to encircle the hotel. While their blockade was officially lifted last week and U.N. supply trucks were authorized to cross the lines, no one else has been allowed access to the compound.

Ouattara is trying to assert control over state television, which had been controlled by Gbagbo until Thursday, when it was pulled from airwaves in 80 percent of the country.

Only people in the main city of Abidjan continued to receive the state channel, which has been exclusively reporting Gbagbo’s victory, refusing to mention the results that make Ouattara president, or his international support.

“We don’t know who did it,” said Ouattara adviser Amadou Coulibaly, “but we’re sure glad they did.”

Ivory Coast was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer. The 2002-2003 civil war split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south. While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara draws his support from the northern half of the country, where he was born, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south.

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The Toronto stock market was flat Friday on very low volume with New York stock and commodity markets closed as American traders get an early start on the Christmas holiday.

The S&P/TSX composite index inched up 0.48 of a point to 13,371.68 points to while the TSX Venture Exchange rose 2.8 points to 2,178.16.

The Canadian dollar moved higher against the greenback, up 0.08 of a cent to 99.2 cents US.

Consumer discretionary stocks led advancers with Quebecor Inc. (TSX: QBR.B) ahead 48 cents to $38.05.

Energy stocks were also positive with Canadian Natural Resources (TSX: CNQ) up 14 cents to $44.74.

Metal stocks were weak with Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN) down five cents to $7.05.

The TSX is headed for a positive end to the second last trading week of the year, up about 170 points or 1.28 per cent. The exchange

Japan’s government said growth will slow in 2011 as the yen’s 11 percent surge against the dollar this year threatens the recovery.

Gross domestic product will probably rise 1.5 percent in the year starting April 1 after growing a projected 3.1 percent this year, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo.

Shares in Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. fell after the government also downgraded its assessment of the nation’s exports, which have been threatened by the currency’s advance to a 15-year high. Overseas shipments expanded 9.1 percent in November, missing economists’ estimates, a report by the Finance Ministry showed today.

“With the yen staying at these high levels, exports will likely struggle to grow even though demand in advanced nations, mainly the U.S., will recover,” said Takuji Okubo, chief Japan economist at Societe Generale SA in Tokyo.

The yen traded at 83.71 per dollar at 3:34 p.m. in Tokyo. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.23 percent, paring gains posted earlier after a report showed exports accelerated for the first time in nine months in November.

“We need to keep a close eye on any possible slowdown in overseas economies and swings in the foreign-exchange rate,” the government said. “We will continue to take bold action including currency intervention when necessary, given that an excessively strengthening yen and its prolongation risk damaging economic and financial stability.”

Losing Steam

Government data in the past month have shown that industrial output fell by the most since February 2009, the jobless rate rose, and machinery orders declined more than economists’ forecast, signaling the economy is losing steam.

“The economic recovery is clearly losing momentum, while deflationary pressures are still strong,” Julian Jessop, a London-based economist for Capital Economics, said in a note highlighting the risk that the economy may contract this quarter and the next instant payday loan lenders. “The room for fiscal stimulus is also now largely exhausted.”

Japan’s economy is expected to shrink at a 1.9 percent annual pace in the three months through December, according to a survey of 42 economists released Dec. 8 by the Economic Planning Association. Growth was 4.5 percent in the third quarter as incentives to buy cars and electronics spurred consumer spending.

Sony Corp., the world’s third-largest television maker, may miss a target to sell 25 million TVs this fiscal year, Vice President Hiroshi Yoshioka said on Dec. 20.

Falling Short

The company may fall short of its goal for the year ending in March 31 by a “little bit,” he said without elaborating. Sony said in October the television industry is heading toward “harsh competition,” making it difficult to profit from TV operations this fiscal year.

The Japanese parliament last month passed an extra budget to fund a stimulus package aimed at fighting deflation and combating the stronger yen. To foster growth, the Bank of Japan cut its benchmark interest rate and created an asset-purchase fund in October.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s Cabinet last week approved an outline of tax revisions, including a cut in the corporate tax rate, to bolster a slowing economy. His government also is compiling a budget for the next fiscal year.

Kan’s declining popularity and a split parliament may complicate his efforts to implement new economic policies. The Kan Cabinet’s approval rating fell to 21 percent, the lowest since he took office in June, according to a survey by the Asahi newspaper. The poll was conducted on Dec. 11 and 12, and compared with a rating of 27 percent in November.

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Pacific Investment Management Co., which manages the world’s biggest bond fund, is buying Australian notes backed by home loans in the secondary market to profit from higher yields as European investors dump the bonds.

Pimco’s Australian unit, which manages about A$32 billion ($32 billion), this month bought AAA rated residential mortgage- backed securities yielding as much as 165 basis points more than the bank bill swap rate, Robert Mead, Sydney-based head of portfolio management, said in an interview. New bond sales pay about 110 basis points, or 1.1 percentage points, he said.

“We think the cheapest asset across Australian fixed- income is secondary market RMBS,” Mead said. “Distressed areas of Europe are now net sellers of Australian RMBS, which we are benefiting from.”

As much as a quarter of the RMBS sold annually by Australian lenders between 2002 and 2007 was denominated in euros to attract European investors, according to data from Standard & Poor’s. The region is now battling a sovereign debt crisis that’s seen Greece and Ireland accept financial bailouts and forced the European Union to create a 750 billion-euro ($987 billion) emergency fund.

Moody’s Investors Service lowered Ireland’s credit rating five levels to Baa1 from Aa2 on Dec. 17, with further downgrades possible, as the government struggles to contain losses in the country’s banking system. Moody’s said last week it may lower Spain from Aa1 and also placed Greece’s Ba1 rating on review for a possible downgrade.

‘Selling Priorities’

When institutions are undercapitalized and don’t have access to new sources of funding, they “need to sell assets to reduce their balance sheet size,” Mead said. “They often focus on high dollar price, liquid assets as selling priorities.”

Many offshore structured investment vehicles, which made up a “sizeable share of the international investor base” for Australian RMBS before the 2007 credit freeze, were forced to liquidate their portfolios during the crisis and sell the notes on the secondary market, Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Guy Debelle said in a Nov. 30 speech.

Secondary market RMBS spreads widened to as much as 450 basis points amid the financial crisis, from 20 basis points before the U.S. subprime collapse roiled markets, according to the speech.

Wide Bay Australia Ltd., a non-bank lender, paid 105 basis points more than the bank bill swap rate on A$138 million of AAA rated RMBS, with a weighted average life of 1.5 years, according to an e-mailed statement last week from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., which helped manage the sale.

ANZ Bank, Australia’s third-largest bank by market value, paid a 70 basis-point spread to sell A$100 million of three-year bonds last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

House Prices

Pimco bought Australian mortgage bonds denominated in U.S. and local dollars and the euro, Mead said. The bond investor prefers to buy RMBS in the secondary market because home owners who borrowed the underlying mortgages which back the notes have proven they can meet repayments, he said.

“The nice thing about those securities is that house prices have gone up since, so already conservatively structured loan to valuation ratios have become even more conservative,” he said. “Our strong preference is the seasoned secondary market opportunities.”

House prices in Australia have risen 20 percent since the start of 2009, according to the statistics bureau.

Even as Gerard Minack, a Sydney-based developed markets strategist at Morgan Stanley, warned in August that homes are about 40 percent overvalued, the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a June report no rated portions of the nation’s mortgage bonds have suffered a default.

Australian Dollar

Pimco also sees Australian financial bonds as attractive, and maintains an overweight position to the nation’s dollar, Mead said.

The currency has gained 10 percent against the greenback this year, the second-best performer of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Financial debt has returned 7.03 percent this year, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index of stocks has returned 1.3 percent including reinvested dividends, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a proposed new framework for protecting consumers’ privacy online.

The plan centers around a "Privacy Bill of Rights" that would encourage better transparency about data collection online, according to the Commerce Department’s report on its policy recommendations. It would promote "informed consent" for consumers through simple notices that clearly state what personal information will be collected and what will be done with it.

The Commerce Department’s proposal would be voluntary — companies would be able to choose whether or not they want to participate. But for those that do, their commitment would be enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission.

That agency came out with its own, more drastic proposal earlier this month, calling for a "do not track" option that would let Web surfers opt out of all data collection.

The Commerce Department was quick to point out in its report that global online transactions generate roughly $10 trillion of sales every year, and U.S. information technology jobs are growing at a pace that’s four times faster than all other domestic jobs.

Reluctant to upset the apple cart, the Obama administration decided against creating a set of "disfavoring prescriptive rules." Translation: It doesn’t want to issue mandates.

Instead, it proposed that the government "enlist the expertise and knowledge of the private sector" to create "voluntary codes of conduct that promote informed consent and safeguard personal information no fax pay day loan."

The report said that the agency would try not to create procedural hurdles, or "impose undue burdens on commerce and on commercial actors."

Still, the Commerce Department sees a role for the government in steering online privacy practices. It proposed the creation of a Privacy Policy Office within the Commerce Department, which would coordinate privacy initiatives with Internet companies.

The new office would work with the Federal Trade Commission in developing a Privacy Bill of Rights and enforcing compliance with it among companies that volunteer to adopt it.

There is a clear demand for enhanced privacy controls online, the department noted: Nearly two-thirds of American adults have changed their privacy settings on their social network profiles in order to limit what they share online.

"America needs a robust privacy framework that preserves consumer trust in the evolving Internet economy while ensuring the Web remains a platform for innovation, jobs, and economic growth," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a prepared statement. "Consumers must trust the Internet in order for businesses to succeed online."

The Commerce Department considers the report a "road map for considering a new framework that is good for consumers and businesses." It would likely need congressional approval to be enacted. 

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Spain completed the final bond sale of the year with the threat of a credit rating downgrade, undermining the government’s efforts to convince investors the nation and its lenders can meet their refinancing needs in 2011.

Today’s auction of 10-year and 15-year bonds raised 2.4 billion euros ($3.2 billion), missing the maximum goal of 3 billion euros, after a surge in borrowing costs led the Treasury to reduce the usual target of as much as 4 billion euros. The yield on 10-year bonds rose five basis points after the auction to 5.56 percent as of 11:46 a.m. in Madrid.

Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday it may lower the country’s Aa1 rating less than three months after the previous cut. Spain’s central government, regional administrations and banks collectively require 290 billion euros of financing next year, leaving the country “susceptible to further episodes of funding stress,” the company said.

“Spain had to pay much higher yields for this auction, and that’s to be expected in the light of what Moody’s did earlier this week,” said Philipp Jaeger, a fixed-income economist at DZ Bank AG in Frankfurt.

The nation today sold 1.78 billion euros of 10-year bonds at an average yield of 5.446 percent, compared with 4.615 percent last time the securities were issued on Nov. 18, the Bank of Spain said today in Madrid. It also sold 618.7 million euros of 15-year debt at 5.953 percent, compared with 4.541 percent when the paper was last sold on Oct. 21.

Borrowing Needs

Spain is prefunding for 2011 as it has covered this year’s needs, according to Salgado. The budget shows gross issuance of 192 billion euros for the central government next year, although asset sales announced on Dec. 1 may raise 14 billion euros to help reduce the potential borrowing. Even as Moody’s says the country will meet its budget-deficit goals for 2010 and 2011, the rating company highlighted the risks posed by the banks’ requirement to roll over 90 billion euros of debt.

“The sovereign is OK, in terms of debt dynamics and even going forward in terms of the debt trajectory, it’s the banking system that’s a problem,” said Mohit Kumar, a fixed-income strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London.

The extra yield investors demand to hold Spanish 10-year bonds over German bunds rose nine basis points to 251 basis points at noon today in Madrid. That compares with a euro-era closing high of 283 basis points on Nov. 30. The cost of insuring Spanish debt against default fell 5.6 basis points to 318, according to CMA prices.

Bank Buying

Spanish banks may provide some potential support for future bond auctions, as they have reduced holdings of government debt since June, which may leave them room to soak up new issuance no fax cash advance. Lenders lowered their holdings of Spanish government debt by 15 percent to 131.9 billion euros in October from 155.6 billion euros in June, according to data from the Treasury. Their share of Spain’s debt shrank to 26 percent in October from 33 percent in June, while non-residents boosted their share to 48 percent from 43 percent.

“Reduced exposure by those institutions should ultimately be a good thing in terms of auction participation going forward,” said Sean Maloney, a fixed-income strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in London. “It probably leaves a bit of room for the traditional supporters of these auctions to come forward.”

Spanish banks also have reduced their dependence on funding from the European Central Bank, cutting borrowings to 61.1 billion euros in November, the lowest since January, from a peak of 130.2 billion euros in July, according to Bank of Spain data. Deputy Finance Minister Jose Manuel Campa said yesterday he doesn’t foresee “problems of market access” for lenders next year, while Spain hasn’t seen any “lack of appetite” for public debt and he doesn’t expect it to next year either.

Brussels Summit

The auction comes as European leaders gather in Brussels today to discuss the creation of a permanent mechanism to support countries with financing difficulties beginning in 2013 when the temporary facility set up in May expires. Amid concerns that the existing 750 billion-euro fund may not be big enough if more countries seek help, Germany is hardening its opposition to expanding the facility, shifting more pressure onto the ECB and its bond-buying program.

Moody’s analyst Kathrin Muehlbronner said in an interview yesterday that a bailout for Spain isn’t “likely,” though she declined to “rule it out.” Juan Jose Toribio, a professor at IESE business school and former head of financial policy in the finance ministry, puts the chances of Spain needing a bailout at 30 percent, rising to 50 percent if Portugal seeks help.

Moody’s threat to cut Spain’s rating came two weeks after the government announced a series of measures, including partial privatizations, benefits cuts and a reduction in taxes for small businesses, aimed at bolstering growth and slashing the deficit by 50 percent in two years. The Socialist government had already lowered public wages and announced a pension freeze in May after Greece’s near-default.

“What it means is that it doesn’t believe in the package of measures,” Toribio said. “It’s all about the date.”

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