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.

•

...

'We will have to take into account this style of dealing with partners in the future, though this scornful approach toward partners mainly affects the Europeans, not us':  Putin reacts to the aborted GM deal.   Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was in London yesterday to discuss the envisaged issue of $17.8 billion in sovereign eurobonds - the selling of which is a core part of the government's deficit-reducing strategy.  A bond issue would 'be likely to draw keen interest from investors because Russia,[...] is in far better shape financially than a decade ago' says the New York Times.   Kudrin is planning changes to the budget which would see funds originally designed to recapitalize banks redirected to flagging industrial giants (such as Avtovaz) and the jobless, as the economic situation has been less harsh than expected.  In ...

News Corp. (NWS) recently reported its first quarter results. Earnings of 22 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 17 cents and climbed 10% from 20 cents posted in the prior-year quarter.   Total revenues tumbled 4.1% year on year to $7,199 million due to fall in Television (down 7.7%), Direct Broadcast Satellite Television (down 4.3%), Newspapers and Information Services (down 17.7%), Book Publishing (down 1.6%) and Other (down 44.4%) segments, offset by rise in Filmed Entertainment (up 20.8%), Cable Network Programming (up 10.5%) and Integrated Marketing Services (up 3.1%) segments.   However, significant cost-cutting initiatives taken by management and robust performance at Filmed Entertainment and Cable Network Programming segments have boosted the operating income by 9.3% to $1,042 million. Management expects fiscal 2010 operating income to increase within a high-single digit to low double-digit percentage range.   Filmed Entertainment posted a record first quarter operating ...

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (ICE) reported its third quarter results yesterday.

The company swung to a GAAP net income of $86.9 million or $1.18 per share from a net income of $75 million or $1.04 in the year-ago period. Results came in 3 cents ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.15.

The quarterly results benefited from position limitations on speculators, sweeping regulatory reforms, lower expenses and record futures trading. The upside was also attributable to growth in the company’s core businesses, significant progress from new initiatives and stronger margins.

The company could benefit as more over-the-counter contracts are exchange-traded and cleared, but could suffer if U.S. regulators impose new commodity-market position limits.

Net revenues increased 27.2% year over year to $256.3 million. The growth was primarily attributable to 34% increase in consolidated transaction and clearing fee revenues in the quarter driven primarily by new products, strong trading volumes in ICE's futures and OTC energy segments, continued

...

How To Play the Oil Conspiracy Theories

Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research

Despite the world’s economic growth woes this year and consequent decreased energy demand in the U.S., the price of oil has held up pretty well this year ($77 as of November 3) when you’d actually think that it would be lower.

What gives?

Fundamentalists will point to two factors…

Continued strong demand for oil from emerging markets. Decreasing oil output from non-OPEC producing nations such as Russia and Mexico.

Conspiracy theorists on the other hand, scoff at that notion. They blame it on the huge quantities that greedy oil companies hold offshore for no better reason than to increase their profits.

While I largely consider myself a fundamentalist, I decided to check it out, just in case there were any facts to support the complaints. And it first means asking a simple question…

Why would anyone

...

Yesterday, the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK) completed two acquisitions - Insight Investment Management Limited and Pinnacle Arbitrage Compliance. It acquired Insight Investment Management Limited from Lloyds Banking Group plc (LYG) Insight Investment specializes in Liability Driven Investment (LDI) solutions, active Fixed Income and Absolute Return and is based in London. Its clients include some of the UK's largest pension schemes, corporations, insurance companies and local authorities, along with a growing number of non-UK clients and some of the best known financial services and intermediary companies. BNY Mellon also completed its previously announced acquisition of Pinnacle Arbitrage Compliance, one of the largest independent U.S. firms devoted exclusively to compliance services for tax-exempt bond issuers and conduit borrowers. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. With these acquisitions, BNY Mellon will have more than $1 trillion in assets under ...

TODAY: Opposition activist torture claims; Miliband leaves with no breakthrough regarding diplomatic concerns; meets with rights activists; Putin and Medvedev popularity waning?; President in need of own power structure to realize reforms; Stalin resurrection an identity issue; Gorbachev on Russophobia; alcohol; jokes; artThe Other Russia reports that Konstantin Makarov, a member of the outlawed National Bolshevik Party, and organizer of an opposition rally planned for the 31st October in Voronezh, was detained and beaten by two policeman, one of whom was S. Yemkov of the notorious Interior Ministry's Center for Extremism Prevention.  According to Makarov, his torturers told him that he would face similar treatment after each rally held by the National Bolsheviks.  Foreign Minister Sergei ...

Bob has an opinion article in today's edition of the Guardian stressing the importance of linking human rights with foreign relations during David Miliband's visit to Russia this week, and elsewhere in the same paper, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's mother has issued her own appeal to the foreign secretary.

At least one report confirms that Khodorkovsky's case will indeed be discussed.

Miliband has started on this path already, apparently. He met with human rights activists today where, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Libery, he "expressed his concern over the killings of activists of nongovernmental organizations in Russia and the pressure that is being imposed on civil society."

Miliband also pressed Russia to

...

LONDON - October 29, 2009 - According to a new report published by London Research International (LRI) "The European Renewable Electricity Sector 2009/10: A Country Comparison of Risks and Opportunities"

There's a very interesting article on euobserver.com about Russia's attempts to re-brand itself as a benign global power in the eyes of Brussels.  The piece reports that news agency Ria-Novosti has apparently engaged the services of low-profile PR consultancy RJI Companies to assist it in softening Russia's image in Europe, in order to justify it having a large say in global affairs.  Apparently a sub-section of this campaign revolves around Stalin rehabilitation and a Soviet makeover:Russian news agency Ria Novosti is rolling out a new public relations campaign in the political capital of the European Union which, according to sources in the PR industry, aims to justify Russia's great power ambitions and improve the image of Joseph Stalin....