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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The speculative carry-trade in dollar is intesifying as investors can borrow dollar at a negative interest rate of 20%. Wendsday the dollar is diving as sharp as it was climbing yesterday. The price of stocks and other asset are getting adjusted again, the price of gold reach its the historic level of 1097 dollar per ounce. Then Mr.Bernanke [...]

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Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group has announced that its first flagship store in India has been opened in Nehru Place, New Delhi. As the first of its kind in India, Lenovo's new store will provide overall brand experiences, including IdeaPad, IdeaCentre, ThinkPad, and ThinkCentre, to local customers. This flagship store is also Lenovo's first one-stop store [...]

The U.S.’ potential conflict with Iran might pale in comparison to a fight brewing between China and India, says Chris Mayer. “This one doesn’t seem to get much attention in the Western media, but I’ve read some dire stuff from the Eastern media. By their lights, the Sino-Indian border hasn’t been this tense since 1986-87, when the skirmishes broke out between Indian and Chinese troops.

“The issue is a disputed border between the two. They fought a 32-day war over it in 1962. China emerged victorious, but the whole thing settled nothing. The border between the two remains hotly contested. It is nearly 2,500 miles long and winds its way across difficult mountainous terrain. There is a northeastern state in India called Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls “Southern Tibet” and claims as Chinese territory.

“India claims last year there were nearly 300 border violations by Chinese troops and over

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Here are two bits of  business news that investors should factor into economic recovery projections.

Hindustan Times (September 2, 200) Exports dip again, down 28.4% in July

India’s exports contracted for the 10th successive month, plunging by 28.4 per cent in July as order books continued to dry out from two of the biggest growth regions—the US and the European Union (EU)—which are still in the throes of a recession, reports

China Daily (August 31, 2009) Industrial enterprises in 22 Chinese provinces, regions and municipalities generated 1.11 trillion yuan ($163 billion) of profit in the first seven months, down 17.3 percent from the same period last year, according to the latest official figures.

The decline is 3.8 percentage points lower than that in the first six months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement Friday.

Daily charts shown below use 1 month (21 day), 1 quarter (63 day), 6 month (126

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The price of water is starting to rise in a big way, at least in China. I’ve expected this for a few years.

To set the table, water rates in China have been so far below the global average it’s ridiculous. Especially when you consider the severe water problems in China. The graphic below is from The Wall Street Journal (“China Cities Raise Water Price in Bid to Conserve” by Andrew Batson):

The Chinese are water-poor. They are sucking their aquifers dry. It is particularly bad in the north of China. The groundwater under the North China Plains is draining away quickly. By some estimates, China will exhaust this water supply in the next ten years.

You probably know that the city of Venice is sinking a fraction of an inch per year. But that’s nothing compared to what is going on in

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Check out this “megatrend”: 97% of global population growth over the next 40 years will occur in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, says the shiny new 2009 World Population Data Sheet. The headline data point was the total growth projection for the world population: 7 billion by 2011. That’s a 200 million extra people on this Earth in just two years.

But it’s the fine print that’s really getting our attention. Here are the highlights… some serious investment trends, to say the least:

90% of the world’s youth, about 1.2 billion people, live in developing nations Africa’s population just passed 1 billion and is set to double by 2050. Half of the population growth in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years will come from immigration By 2050, India’s population will reach 1.7 billion, passing China as the world’s most populous nation.

That last one was a particular surprise

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Asia is poised to become the “new” Detroit.

Here in the United States, at a cost of a mere $3 billion, the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program appears to have given new hope to the U.S. auto industry.

But that new hope is destined to be short-lived.

It’s true that - in terms of value delivered for the money invested - “Cash for Clunkers” has eclipsed every other stimulus program that has been tried. But the program has a projected lifespan of only three months, meaning it can’t reverse the powerful global forces that are destined to turn the U.S. auto market from leader to laggard on the global stage.

Financial Crisis Fallout Reshapes Sector

Thanks to the financial crisis whose impact continues to be felt, worldwide automobile demand had dropped on an overall basis since 2008.

But regional differences are already emerging.

In the United States, for instance, the benchmark seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR)

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