Links: 2009-04-19

• Nearing 100- Katrina Vanden Hevel, The Nation This is a fairly even-handed look back at Barack Obama’s first months as President and his prospects going forward

• Financial Innovation for Beginners – James Kwak

• How the CDS market makes restructurings more difficult – Felix Salmon

• Richard Bernstein: 10 guidelines learned in 20 years – Prieur de Plessis

• How Do You Spell Sweet Deal? For Banks, It’s TLGP – Barrons

• Don’t Bank on It – Alan Abelson, Barron’s Good piece about the missing month at Goldman in shifting reporting to March and leaving out December 2008. A nice mention for Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge as well.

• Former Bank of England governor Eddie George dies aged 70 – Guardian Eddie George did a fine job as the head of the BoE

• Oil in the Americas – Gregor Macdonald

• Bank Regulators Clash Over U.S. Stress-Tests Endgame – Bloomberg hat tip Mark Thoma. Looks like a lose-lose for Geithner as we stress test the golden list of 19.  Is this the same list of 19 that got a free pass on short selling last summer? I mention them in a post in July. Apparently, this is a different list.  Strange how the number 19 keeps popping up.

• La morosidad sube al 4,18%, el nivel máximo en doce años – El Pais (Spanish)

German
I am in Germany through Monday, so I have been reading a lot of German-language press recently.

• Citigroup mit 1,6 Mrd. Fake Gewinn – egghat (German) Citi is using accounting tricks to goose earnings by taking an accounting gain from a loss in the value of their debt (ostensibly because they could buy the debt back and book the gain). Many have caught on to this and have discounted Citi’s earnings report. Apparently, Morgan Stanley will take a hit in the other direction because their debt has appreciated in value.

• Konjunkturprogramme: Stimulus mit gefährlichen Folgen – FAZ (German)

• General Motors: Mehr als sechs Interessenten für Opel-Einstieg – FAZ (German) GM says it has tons of suitors lined up for Opel in Germany. Fiat looks to be in the pole position. What does that mean for Chrysler

• Konjunkturprogramme: Stimulus mit gefährlichen Folgen – FAZ the Germans are NOT convinced about the benefits of massive stimulus and they are not happy about Krugman’s criticisms about Europe’s poor fiscal stimulus response

• US-Journalistin in Iran zu acht Jahren Haft verurteilt – NZZ Online (German) Not sure if the U.S. press is picking this up, but a US-Iranian Diplomat is in jail for no real reason. Not good for detente at all.

• Strauss-Kahn: “Keine Sorgen um Österreich” – Kurier The Austrians are pissed at Krugman for suggesting they could go the way of Iceland. IMF head Strauss-Kahn suggests otherwise