Bonus Bananas June 8, 2012

1) Kerviel’s Refusal To Be Scapegoat Seen Harming Appeal Bid (Bloomberg) - I have to hand it to this plucky French kid. Even though it's probably scuttling his appeal, Kerviel refuses to take the blame for the SocGen loss - claiming his bosses knew what he was doing the whole time. Of course they did, but that's an inconvenient truth to the SocGen managers who want to put the whole thing behind them.

2) Did Facebook Break The IPO Window? (Forbes) - Although Morgan Stanley has two IPOs planned in the next 30 days, who knows if they'll actually happen? Summer is traditionally a terrible time to IPO, and if that weren't reason enough, Facebook has soured the IPO market big time. Are we even going to see another big IPO this year?

3) Wireless, Fiber, the Speed of Light, and Wall Street (Community Broadband Networks) - Fiber optics are so yesterday. If you want to shave a couple of milli-seconds off your trade executions, microwave towers are where it's at these days. This article makes an interesting point about the hundreds of millions of dollars Wall Street invests in this stuff which has no value to anyone outside the Street. Probably not an efficient allocation of capital.

4) Wow! Apple Turns Over Its Inventory Once Every 5 *Days* (The Atlantic) - This is just incredible. For context, consider that in order to stay in business your average retailer needs to turn over his inventory about three time a year. Apple is doing it every five days for an astounding inventory turnover of 73 times a year. Unbelievable. That is one laser-sharp supply chain.

5) Apple Seeks to Block Import of Newest HTC Phones, Tablets (Business Week) - I can't decide if HTC is infringing on a patent or if this is just more patent abuse with a side of dirty pool on the part of Apple. In either case, Apple is doing their dead-level best to ensure that no one in America has an HTC phone or tablet. They are literally doing everything they can to stop them at the border.

6) If You Want to Get Hired, Leave the BS Behind (Street ID) - It seems like common sense that it's a bad idea to try to bullshit your way through a Wall Street interview, but people do it all the time. If you're not a quant, don't claim to be.

7) Hachi Combines LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Google Into One, Lets You Search All Your Connections At Once (Tech Crunch) - Dumb name, potentially game changing app. This thing could be every networker's dream come true. Not only do I encourage you to read this article, I encourage you to click through to Hachi's website and watch the concept video. You might be connected to Wall Street BSDs in ways you've never even imagined.

8) What a Scam: Poor Kids' Money Snatched by Private Schools! (Rolling Stone) - This isn't your typical liberal pablum; this might actually make your blood boil. A state tax credit designed to give poor children a choice in schools is being exploited by rich families to pay private school tuition for their kids. The purposely vague law states that students must be enrolled in public school to qualify, so the parents are just "enrolling" their kids in the public school while they're actually attending a private school and receiving public funds to do so. Disgusting.

9) A Look At The Largest Private Armies In The World (Business Insider) - Warfare often comes down to mathematics. If Army A has more guys than Army B, the odds are stacked pretty heavily in Army A's favor. However, if Army A's government is too chickenshit to admit what they're up to and institute a draft, well, the bodies have to come from somewhere. More and more today the US has come to rely on mercenary armies. Here are the biggest players.

10) Charlie Sheen admits 'total denial' of his 'quicksanded' life (LA Times) - Say it ain't so, Sheener! A part of me hopes this is just fake contrition to promote his new series, but Charlie Sheen admits in the new issue of Rolling Stone that his epic meltdown wasn't #WINNING at all and that his life was a mess. Yup, burying yourself under a mountain of blow sounds awful.

Video of the Week:
There were a lot of different ways I could have gone with this week's video, but at the end of the day I think this was the video that had the largest impact on me this week. You want to know what happens when you let Wall Street CEOs run the economy into a ditch with blatant fraud and walk away scott free? Well, this is what happens. You create a nation full of remorseless, entitled thieves who believe their only crime is getting caught. If there's any justice in this world, these two are gonna be pregnant and working the pole on day crew in some seedy Tulsa strip joint in five years. Enjoy:

That's it for the this week, fellas. Let me know what you think of this week's Bananas in the comments, and have a fantastic weekend!