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