This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Economist.com: Jobs gloom, with glimmers, November 6, 2009. America’s jobless rate passes 10% but the job market should start to improve soon.

• Paul Krugman (The New York Times): Why not a WPA? November 6, 2009. A question I’m occasionally asked at public events is, why aren’t we creating jobs with a WPA-type program? It’s a very good question. As it is, job-creation efforts are generally indirect. Tax cuts and transfers in the hope that people will spend them; aid to state governments in the hope of averting layoffs. Even infrastructure spending is routed through private contractors. You can make a pretty good case that just employing a lot of people directly would be a lot more cost-effective.

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Today, an important Russian business leader is giving a speech that we have obtained an advanced copy of and that we are happy to provide to our readers. Transcript is accessible at the following link:

2009Nov06.Igor.Yurgens.Elliott-Lecture.pdf

Ariel Cohen and Richard Ericson have a new paper discussing Russia's economic crisis and its relations with the United States. I would encourage reading this paper in full as it hits on all the major factors relevant to Russia's economic situation though I will warn up front that a fair number of you will take exception to their interpretation of some of those factors. In addition there a couple of points that the authors have either overlooked or simply assumed readers would already be aware of that I think are worth spelling out briefly first.

The first has to do with the recommendations the authors make for US policy. I have no major disagreements with the recommendations themselves, but would argue that executing most of them depend on Putin being out of the picture, among other things.

Another point regards the China

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Walter Laqueur of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has a very thought-provoking new paper out entitled "Russia's Muslim Strategy". It's quite a bit to digest, as there are obviously a number of subplots to consider in this assessment, but I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone interested in having a better understanding of the complications and even contradictions of one of the most overlooked drivers of Russian foreign policy over the years. Rather than reinterpret his observations, I think it is more prudent to let his own words do the talking:

One of the main challenges facing Russia is its relationship with Islam, both on the internal front and in foreign policy. It would certainly be too much to say that the Russian leadership and public opinion

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Michael Kahn (Barron’s): Setting free the bears, November 2, 2009. The stock market’s astounding run from its March lows has finally run into a real ceiling. After outpacing most, if not all, post bear-market rallies over the past century the inevitable is finally here. But is it part of another correction or something more? The urgency of the sell-off suggests the latter. That said, I don’t see the danger of the market testing its March lows any time soon.

• Charles Githler (MoneyShow.com): Former bears’ take on the market’s future, October 18, 2009. Are we headed for a major correction, or even worse: a resumption of the bear market?What “the best” (former bears) are telling us now …

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Amsterdam and Peroff have a new white paper discussing the case of opposition leader Dr. Chee Soon Juan in Singapore. The introduction of the executive summary of the report is below, followed by a link for downloading the full paper.

Introduction

This White Paper documents the repression of political freedoms in Singapore. It reviews how the Government of Singapore, under the leadership of the People's Action Party (PAP), has monopolized the state's apparatus to its own benefit. The result has been the denial of democratic rights and freedoms and the muzzling of domestic and international media.

The case of Dr Chee Soon Juan is examined in detail. Being the leader of one of Singapore's most important opposition parties - the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)

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From Robert Amsterdam's latest in the Huffington Post:

Why then, with so much going for him and his country, should he make such controversial choices in his friends? Lula's increasingly warm embrace of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including an official state visit to Brazil Nov. 23-26, is causing many of his fawning admirers to rub their eyes in disbelief.

For those of us who enthusiastically support Brazil and its people, culture, and economy, the logic of the relationship with Iran is perplexing. There is no overlap in values, for example. This week Iran executed five people (including women), while another 135 juvenile offenders are on death row. Second only to China

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Charlie Rose sits down with Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of the new book The Next Asia - Opportunities and Challenges for a New Globalization, and discusses China. Roach has been based in China for the past three years and describes why he loves it and what he has learned. A link to the transcript of the interview follows at the end of the post.

Click here or on the image below to view the video. (As there is no direct link to the clip, you need to click on “Archive” on the Charlie Rose site, and then scroll down to the Roach video of October 23.)

Click here for a transcript of the interview.

Source: Charlie Rose, October 23, 2009.

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The other day the Financial Times had a good editorial on Vladimir Putin's visit to China to sign a plethora of business and energy deals, and naturally, the holy grail of all such diplomacy:  becoming a bigger supplier of natural gas to China's thirsty industrial capacity from the Kovykta field.  The FT made the point that we've argued around here for a long time, that the Sino-Russian friendship is meant to look bigger than it is:  "Certainly, the new Great Game in central Asia does not appear to be going Washington's way. Yet talk of a confluence of Chinese and Russian interests is overdone."In addition to the rivalry trumping the friendship, Russia's biggest obstacle to scaring the Europeans over sending its gas to the east is the problem of pricing (let's not forget the foibles of Sechin's incomprehensible oil ...

Author, journalist, and blogger Steve LeVine has just punched a new article about the rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia ... yet according to his Facebook feed, he is not being allowed to link to his own blog, as several FB users have issued complaints over the offensive nature of the column.  Very strange stuff - not unlike our experience on this blog when YouTube pulled down videos we had posted on prison abuse because of all the sudden complaints (see the Wall Street Journal write up on the incident).  For those intrigued by this kind of story, check out Evgeny Morozov's excellent blog NetEffect on Foreign Policy.Meanwhile, here is a bit from LeVine's totally harmless article on the pact proposed by the Armenian president ... though clearly after the trials of Orhan Pamuk we understand that ...