Skepticism abounds on the quality of Goldman Sachs’ (GS) earnings.  (WSJ.com, Zero Hedge, Clusterstock)

Who gained from the Goldman offering? (Felix Salmon, Bespoke, 1440 Wall Street)

“We’re simply here to kick off what we have already deemed the Q1 ’09 Earnings Season Clusterf*ck. You will most likely be deceived, tricked, and possibly even lied to.”  (market folly)

T-bill yields are hovering around 0% again.  (Zero Hedge)

Don’t write off the VIX just yet.  (Daily Options Report, Trader’s Narrative)

Do “ethical companies” outperform their peers?  (Kirk Report)

ETFs do not need to be covered by a more stringent uptick rule.  (IndexUniverse.com)

“A new academic study examines how equity betas jump with the release of earnings announcements. It seems that, as in the hedge fund industry, a dearth of information in equity markets can lead to an over-reaction when news is finally released – even if that news is about a competitor.”  (AllAboutAlpha.com)

“The great traders express themselves through their trading as artists express themselves through painting or dance.”  (TraderFeed)

It’s not you, it’s me.  eBay (EBAY) to spinoff Skype.  (WSJ.com, 24/7 Wall St., The Big Money, Breakingviews)

The earthquake on Wall Street illustrated.  (Crossing Wall Street)

Cheap credit yields ‘crummy companies.’  (Infectious Greed)

A new blog in an undeserved area, distressed debt investing, takes a look at the case of Six Flags (SIX).  (Distressed Debt Investing)

Forget Fiat, Chrysler should merge with General Motors (GM).  (DealBook)

Is the housing market on the precipice of another leg down?  (Value Plays)

“(I)n twenty years of offering M&A and financial advice to corporate clients, I have yet to meet someone who has intentionally pushed a “bad” M&A idea to a client.”  (Epicurean Dealmaker)

What happened in December to crush bank earnings?  (Deal Journal)

Releasing the results of the bank stress tests:  responsible or panic-inducing?  (naked capitalism, Clusterstock, 24/7 Wall St.)

Is more Fed openness a good thing?  (Alea, Felix Salmon, Dealbreaker)

On a knife’s edge:  “There’s a risk of serious deflation if the economy keeps getting worse, and there’s a risk of serious inflation if it suddenly gets dramatically better.”  (Curious Capitalist)

Not every country believes in a massive fiscal stimulus.  (Marginal Revolution)

“That capitalism has become so aligned in the minds of its critics with conspicuous wealth or excess, that the two are linked wherever wealth and excess is found.”  (finem respice)

“Explaining and predicting an infinitely complex system like the global economy is to economics what paranoia is to politics: a radically reductionist version of reality.”  (Dealscape)

“It’s time to stick a fork into biofuels as a matter of public policy. Beans, Corn, Sticks, Algae, Switchgrass. There simply isn’t enough meaningful quantity of energy to unlock from young, organic material. And there never will be.”  (Gregor.us)

Every one makes a big deal out of April 15th, but “a sizable majority of Americans pay more in Social Security taxes than they pay in individual income taxes.”  (Economix)

“The pirate business is not going away. It is too profitable.”  (24/7 Wall St.)

How one pro manages a prodigious information flow.  (Howard Lindzon)

“An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.”  (BBC News)

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