Bonus Bananas July 12, 2013

First of all, a HUGE thank you to the literally hundreds of you who bought the book yesterday. I am overwhelmed by your enthusiasm, and the feedback I've started getting is awesome. Thank you all.

Now let's get to it:

1) Let The Games Begin (AVC) - They might have been a year behind schedule, but this week the SEC handed entrepreneurs a gift they haven't seen in over 70 years: companies can now advertise unregistered stock offerings. This is HUGE. Now if they'd just get on the ball with the rest of the JOBS Act.

2) So Much for Non-correlation in Hedge Funds (Pragmatic Capitalism) - On the heels of the embarassing Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover photo, Cullen Roche piles on by pointing out that many hedge fund investors are paying two and twenty for an index ETF. Ouch.

3) As Its Ratings Slide, The Confessions Of A Recovering CNBC Pundit (Forbes) - Here's a particularly nasty hit piece written by whom I can only assume is a former friend of Larry Kudlow's. The business network wars are for real, and I hear all kinds of nasty stuff through the contacts I have at the various networks. You usually don't see it spill out on the page like this, though.

4) Caught On Tape: Irish Bankers Laugh About Never Repaying Bailout (

) - This is pretty awful, and it was well on it's way to becoming Video of the Week until it was unseated by what you'll find below. I think if a conversation like this were revealed between American TARP recipients, there would be riots in the streets.

5) The best investment advice you'll never get (Modern Luxury) - This is remarkable. Picture this: you were an early employee at Google, it's 2004 and the company is about to IPO, and within days you're going to be a multimillionaire. Legions of Wall Street vipers are circling, just waiting to get their hands on the assets of all the newly minted Google millionaires. If you're Google, how do you protect your employees? You bring in Bill Sharpe, Burton Malkiel, and Jack Bogle to teach them all personal finance. Wall Street never stood a chance.

6) Expert calls James Gandolfini’s will 'a disaster' because almost half of his $70 million fortune will go to taxes (Daily Mail) - This is just tragic, and highlights how critical proper estate planning is. Despite the amazing body of work Gandolfini left behind, almost half of his $70 million fortune will go to taxes.

7) Watch out for the hot flushes (a few billion years away): Earth enters its mid-life crisis (The Independent) - It's a shame I won't be around to see it, because the end of the world sounds like a party.

8) Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump (Zen Habits) - Summer time can be a killer when it comes to sapping motivation. Here's a few hacks to help keep your eye on the ball.

9) How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages (The Guardian) - This is really messed up. And just when I thought Microsoft was starting to get their shit together. Now I'm all paranoid about using Office 365. You know they gave the feds access to the cloud.

10) Nadia (IndieGoGo) - As a former Marine who neither lives in a trailer nor works in a bowling alley, I'm approached fairly often by my brothers in arms with various pitches to fund certain former Marine activities. Some are very good and I don't hesitate to pitch in. Some...well, I'll just let this campaign speak for itself. All joking aside, I'm seriously considering throwing a grand at this thing just to see this level of schlock get made. Anyway, it's gotta be better than After Earth, right?

Video of the Week:

This video is dedicated to all you guys in a relationship. A buddy of mine sent it to me last night and I immediately shared it with Patrick, where we proceeded to laugh our asses off. So sad, and so true. Enjoy:

That's it for this week, stallions. Have a fantastic weekend, and let me know what you think about this week's batch of bananas in the comments!