1) Greg Smith Quit Goldman After ‘Unrealistic’ Pitch for $1M (Bloomberg) - Greg Smith definitely got the last laugh. Goldman launched an internal investigation into him and Bloomberg got their hands on it. It's pure gold, and no one will ever be able to tell Smith he didn't have balls. When GS balked at his demand for a million dollar bonus, he quit and wrote a book that'll probably pay him two million.
2) Stalker App? Facebook Kills Friend Finding Feature (CNBC) - When something's too creepy for even Facebook, you know it must be bad. This kind of thing can't be helping the stock.
3) The Only Earthling With a Facebook 'Dislike' Button (BusinessWeek) - Speaking of Facebook, where's my Dislike button? This guy has one. I want one. Seriously. If anything could save the stock, giving everyone a Dislike button would surely do it.
4) FORGET GOLD: Here's Where Die-Hard Skeptics Are Storing Their Wealth (Business Insider) - I can understand real estate and art, and even liquor to an extent, but black walnuts? You'd have to be a Unabomber-level weirdo for that to make sense.
5) French business erupts in fury against "disastrous" François Hollande (The Telegraph) - It's almost comical what a disaster the Hollande presidency is turning into, and with an alacrity surprising even to me. You literally cannot get a single person to admit they voted for him over here, yet somehow he won.
6) Mega Millions Jackpot Winner: My Girlfriend Just Dumped Me, ‘Thank God’ (Gawker) - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Karma's a bitch, baby.
7) Amanda Todd's Alleged Bully Named By Anonymous After Teen's Tragic Suicide (Huffington Post) - Whatever you may think of the Internet hacking collective known as Anonymous, this was actually pretty cool in a truly horrible way. I'm sure now the Internet will have its justice. This guy's life is over.
8) Hacker cracks 4 million hotel locks with 'James Bond Dry Erase Marker' (Daily Mail) - Speaking of hackers, you might want to think about using the safe in your room next time you're travelling.
9) Forty Years of Drug War Failure Represented in a Single Chart (Reason.com) - Enough said.
10) 7 Tips for Not Screwing Up College (Cracked) - Surprisingly good advice from a venue modeled after Mad Magazine. Best advice is Tip #1.
Video of the Week:
Maybe it's because the weather sucks and I'm already longing for summer, or maybe it's because I always wanted to get fired out of a cannon at the circus, but something about the following video put a smile on my face that won't quit. I'm just wondering if a fat guy comes with the trampoline rental.
That's it for this week, guys. Have a phenomenal weekend and let me know what you think of this week's crop of Nanners in the comments.
Businesses pulling out of France is like WW2 all over again (read: Dunkirk evacuation). France has fallen to the dark side - again.
Those black walnut trees are great. I actually spoke to a guy who grows and scouts timber for an investment manager. You can get returns of ~10% that are relatively uncorrelated to the broader economy.
Black walnuts are one of the higher return trees, due to the value of the wood and comparatively rapid growth. In terms of pure profit, Hawaiian Koa and Tiger Maple are the highest, going for thousands per tree. But they are very hard to grow.
I used to date a chick whose family owned a walnut grove in Paso Robles. It was the damndest thing to watch them harvest. They'd bring out this machine that would literally shake the tree until all the walnuts fell out. Now that you mention it, though, I remember her dad telling me it was a cash cow, and this was back in the mid-90s.
Glad I worked at home, I'll probably spend the next hour reading these links. Great stuff this week.
Yeah, the drug war chart is telling, still I would take a PT job whacking high-level drug dealers for minimum wage. Spend my weekends running around in the jungle like Tom Berenger. It is absolutely amazing how much money gets spent to no material effect, a la federal education spending since LBJ.
Also, I would not want to land like that dude about the halfway point in the video
My family has had black walnut trees as long as I can remember. The lumber goes for a premium once you have trees thick enough, and if you know how, black walnut oil sells for a mint. For a few hours of work you can really generate a ton of cash.
disclaimer: I know NOTHING about this, but I have a friend with a decent amount of land a few hours outside of Chicago so I looked into it.
I'm sure if you have/inherited a tree farm the ongoing proceeds are great, but using the model from the University of Missourri it seems like a pretty crappy investment (and this excludes land acquisition cost). So, where is the money really made here?
http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/profit/walnutfinancialmodel.php
"The immediate bone of contention is Article 6 of the new tax law, which raises the top rate of capital gains tax from 34.5pc to 62.2pc. This compares with 21pc in Spain, 26.4pc in Germany and 28pc in Britain."
Holy crap.
Ahahaha - I'm pretty sure article number 4 meant to quote "Tim O'Neil" not "Jim O'Neil".....embarrasing
Sorry, nvm. Look's like Tim O'Neil and Jim O'Neill both work at Goldman
In before Tony Perkis comes to pop the Blob...
I'm getting sick of hearing about FB. Still too volatile to touch.
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