Remember $20 Oil? Looks Like It’s Coming Back – by Kalpa – According to a July 16th Bloomberg article, Philip Verleger, who correctly predicted that oil prices would exceed $100 per barrel in 2007, has now predicted that due to the huge surplus and OPEC overproduction we now have, it will fall to $20 per barrel yet this year. – great comments – Seeking Alpha

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The Man Who Crashed the World – By MICHAEL LEWIS  – major article on AIG at Vanity Fair – thanks M 

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Video-o-rama: Dow back above 9,000 – Posted by Prieur du Plessis – This post offers a bumper compilation of the financial trials and tribulations that were captured on video during the past week. – Investment Postcards from Cape Town

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Bernanke: 25 mega-firms are systemically vital – By Ronald D. Orol – MarketWatch

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Chart of the Day - … Today’s chart illustrates how earnings are expected (38% of S&P 500 companies have reported for Q2 2009) to have declined over 98% since peaking in Q3 2007, making this by far the largest decline on record …  if current estimates hold, Q3 2009 will see the first 12-month period during which S&P 500 earnings are negative. – Chart of the Day 
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Why Toxic Assets Are So Hard to Clean Up – By KENNETH E. SCOTT and JOHN B. TAYLOR -  Securitization was maddeningly complex. Mandated transparency is the only solution. – Wall Street Journal