Bonus Bananas Mar 18, 2011

Sorry for the lateness of the post, guys. As you can probably imagine, I'm feeling pretty rough this morning. Here we go:

1) Banks pledge nearly $30 million in Japan relief effort (FinanceAsia) - It's not often we hear about our industry doing something good these days, but the banks are stepping up to help Japan. Goldman donated just over $6 million and JP Morgan Chase donated $5 million - and offered to send Jamie Dimon to Japan. Not sure how that last bit helps, unless he's handy with a shovel.

2) Families Slice Debt to Lowest in 6 Years (Wall Street Journal) - U.S. families continued the trend of personal de-leveraging, driving the average family's debt load to a six-year low. YouWalkAway.com, the website that advises people on strategic default, has grown 8% since last year and 50% since 2009. Maybe the debt slaves are finally waking up.

3) U.S. Taxes By Income Level Over The Years (Data Pointed) - Here's an infographic that might just blow your mind. It shows the relative U.S. tax burden from 1913-2011. The bad news? If you're making between $20,000 and $150,000 a year, you're getting hammered.

4) Top 15 Young Female Entrepreneurs and Their Rising Companies (Under30 CEO) - Here's a great list of young women who are making it happen. One in particular I'd like to point out is Alexa von Tobel, a former Morgan Stanley analyst who's well on her way to becoming the next Suze Orman. I almost wrote an entire post about her last year, because she admitted she got the idea for LearnVest because she was staffed on multi-million dollar deals at work but couldn't balance her own checkbook at home. And not for nothing, but there are a couple of real hotties on this list.

5) How To Start An Internet Company In Your Dorm Room And Make $580 Million (Business Insider) - While we're on the entrepreneur tip, I thought I'd show you guys the story of Bo Peabody, founder of Tripod and author of Lucky Or Smart?: Fifty Pages for the First-Time Entrepreneur. He started Tripod in his dorm room knowing nothing about computers, ended up selling it to Lycos for $58 million in stock - which then 10-bagged over the two-year period he was restricted from selling it. He sold out $580 million in Lycos stock right before the Dot Com bubble burst, and went into bonds and real estate. Great story.

6) Wholesale prices up 1.6% on steep rise in food (Yahoo! Finance) - The days of cheap calories in the U.S. may be coming to an end. Wednesday's PPI report showed the sharpest surge in food prices in 36 years - almost 4% in a month. Yikes. Americans spend an average of 10% of their annual income on food - the lowest percentage in the developed world. Sounds like that's about to change.

7) Super-rich to be given fast-track to settle in Britain (Guardian) - Is Britain the next Banana Republic? In a bid to woo the super rich, British immigration laws have been amended to basically sell British citizenship to anyone willing to deposit £10 million in a British bank. Not sure why anyone would actually want to do this, considering Britain's oppressive tax structure, but hey, it worked for Panama, right?

8) Lady Gaga To Grace Tudor Jones' Robin Hood Gala (FIN Alternatives) - Lady Gaga gets top billing at this year's Robin Hood Gala held by Paul Tudor Jones. The event is May 9 at the Javits Convention Center, and proceeds go to help homeless New Yorkers. Not my first choice in music, but a damn good cause.

9) The Hunter Becomes the Hunted (Esquire) - Nothing Wall Street related here, just a tale of a serious bad ass I thought you guys would enjoy. Meet Omar Mohammed: Iraqi Terrorist Hunter.

10) Houston woman, 1-year-old daughter found drunk on Four Loko (MyFox Boston) - Didn't seem right to suffer this St. Patty's Day hangover without a Four Loko story. There should be a licensing process to have kids. It's one thing to blow your own brains out on cheap malt liquor (I know, I've done it), but to get your one-year old kid tanked on Four Loko while your other infant child is dangling from a bed by the sheets is over the top. Forced sterilization, anyone?

Best video of the week comes out of Japan. The quake and tsunami aren't just a human tragedy. Here's a dog that refuses to leave his wounded companion to die. According to CNN, both dogs have been rescued:

Let me know what you think of the links, and have a great weekend guys.