Links, November 11

Economist's view discussion on Paul Krugman: Franklin Delano Obama?:
"What saved the economy, and the New Deal, was the enormous public works project known as World War II, which finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs." Interesting comments with Anne posting an open leyyer from J.M. Keynes to FDR.

Yves Smith :AIG: The Looting Continues (Banana Republic Watch).

Obama to ask for troops in 'war we need to win'.

Ahmadinejad's letter to Obama sparks storm in Iran:
"On Friday, Obama offered a public reaction to the letter in his first post-election news conference, saying that he would review it and respond appropriately. But he also said that Iranian "support for terrorist organizations has to ease" and that its suspected development of nuclear weapons was not acceptable."

Brad Setser discusses China's financial stimulus plan in Does a bigger boom imply a bigger bust?.

Can you resist financial globalization?:
"# Evidence from prices and quantities shows the most limited globalization in China, followed at a distance by India, followed in turn by Thailand and then Korea.
# The extent to which countries have been hit by the recent crisis follows this ranking (in reverse order) almost exactly. In particular, Korea has been the country hardest hit despite many other preventive policies (including large reserve build-up) before the onset of the turmoil."

Mandela mourns icon Miriam Makeba . I heard only one (video) song by her but it was mesmerizing.