As it turns out, the time you’ve been spending in the bars may be helping your earning power. A study recently published in the Journal of Labor Research reveals that social drinkers earn more than those who shy away from the bottle.

If you thought swigging beer or indulging in a glass of chardonnay was putting your career on a fast-track to nowhere, think again.
In fact, a study conducted by two economists and published Thursday by the Reason Foundation and in the latest edition of The Journal of Labor Research, says that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than those who refrain from drinking.
“Instead of earning less money that nondrinkers, drinkers earn more,” authors of the study, Bethany Peters and Edward Stringham, wrote. More specifically, the study found that workers who drank in a social setting earned more than those who tipped a glass at home.
The study contends that social capital, which entails everything from a person’s charisma to the size of their social network, can be enhanced by drinking.

If this study is right, we must be the effin’ Oligarchs of social capital. At least that’s what this morning’s hangover is telling us.
Happy hour for drinkers’ wages [CnnMoney.com]

Econ degree from Penn. Yale law. It all starts off so promising and then goes downhill so fast. We’re all just one bed dental experience from thinking the FBI, Bob Packwood and the entire universe is out to destroy us, apparrently.
[We know this isn't new but it's a slow summer Friday and if you're stuck in the office you could probably use a laugh just about now. ]

The Worlds Worst Resume [Some random webpage]

It’s not you, it us. Actually, it may be them. We’re having trouble this morning getting to DealBook’s contents and we’re not sure if it’s a problem with our service provider or the servers at the New York Times. Sit tight. Your summary of DealBook is on the way. It will just take a bit longer this morning.

Regular readers are no doubt familiar with our concern for rich, beautiful women. We earlier linked to a Forbes’ list of billionaires under 35, which unfortunately included very few women. But just because a girl isn’t a billionaire yet, doesn’t mean she won’t be soon. Like when her parent units kick off for that great country club in Hell. So which hotties are destined for fortune? The latest Forbes list brings us “The Hottest Billionaire Heiresses.”
We’re kind of partial to Lydia Hearst-Shaw (pictured left) but that’s probably more evidence of a sickness within our souls than anything intrinsically wonderful about our Lydia.
The Hottest Billionaire Heiresses [Forbes]

From UPI:

Soul singer James Brown filed a suit in New York’s Supreme Court against banker David Pullman, who initiated “Bowie Bonds,” saying Pullman had blown a deal.
Brown claimed in the suit filed Monday that Pullman had not put through a loan the singer needed for bonds. But Pullman claimed he was owed money, the New York Post reported.
Pullman earned a reputation as a creative financier when he advised singer David Bowie to issue bonds using future royalties as security.

Or, as the hardest working man in showbiz once said himself:

Sold me out, for chicken change (yes you did!!)
Told me that they, they had it all arranged
You had me down, and thats a fact
Now you punk, You gotta get ready
For the big payback!! (the big payback!!)
That’s where I am, the big payback (the big payback!!)

James Brown sues banker over deal [UPI]

Another blog to keep on your radar. This time from a Finnish MBA who is now ten days into his stint with the Finn military.

Picture the scene. Naoise O’Loughlin-Irwin is lined up with the other fresh recruits. The drill sergeant, the owner of his ass for the next few months is walking down the line, shouting insults at the sorry lot of losers that he has to put up with, singling out one gimpy gimp in particular, a gimpy loser in the shape of that Irish aquatic vegetarian investment banker:
“Only three things come from Ireland: steers, queers and investment bankers. I don’t see no horns on you, boy, and you sure as hell don’t play golf good enough to be a banker, so that kind of narrows it down. Are you a queer, Private Fishboy?”
“No sir, you are!”

Heh. Finn drill sergeants get their best lines from American movies and then get burnt by Irish investment bankers.
File under:Finn military=probably good at cross-country skiing; being scary, not so much.
Day 10: How Would The Gimpy Fishboy Do In The Army?[Rapid Deployment Finn Blog]

Back in our early M&A days, we found ourselves in the midst of a mutli-player, seemingly endless buyout deal featuring a number of high-end fashion houses. In order to keep up with the industry we started reading the trades. Our local newsstand guy actually asked us once if we were having a crisis when we picked up Women’s Wear Daily every day for a week.
Well, WWD is now reporting that investment banks and private equity firms are looking into investing in young fashion talent. So don’t be too surprised if you see that guy on the train to Greenwich putting down his Wall Street Journal and picking up the latest issue of WWD.
We actually feel kind of bad for the fashion kids getting swept up in this. They probably don’t know much about private equity. When a guy named “buzzsaw” shows up and starts laying off designers, though, they will learn quick. From the WWD story, it sounds like the fashionistas and capitalists are still in their honeymoon phase. But the kids with the threads might want to ask how long until we reach the “private equity massacres with fashion companies” called for by this blogger?
Private Equity on Hunt for Young Talent [Women's Wear Daily via Almost a Girl]

Today’s Independent reports that affluent Japanese “are turning to China’s burgeoning human organ transplant industry, paying tens of thousands of pounds for livers and kidneys, which in some cases have been harvested from executed prisoners and sold to hospitals.”
Today’s Xinhua reports that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. has “established ‘strategic’ ties with Goldman, Sachs in a move to help build itself into a modern, sophisticated banking giant.”
What the hell is Goldman waiting for? There is an entirely unregulated, highly inefficient market here, and that is where real money gets made. What’s the price on the April ’09 peasant liver call option? No one seems to know. What’s higher beta, spleens or corneas? Not sure. Is there any research on peasant kidneys versus political dissident kidneys? Doubtful.
And are there any excuses for any of this?
Absolutely not.
Goldman has been profiting off of the souls of its own employees for long enough that it should be able to flip a buck in Chinese organs without breaking out in a case of the morals.
Come on, gentlemen. Get in there. You’ll roll up the profits as exotics, and no one will ever know.
ICBC teams up with Goldman Sachs [Xinhua]
Japan’s rich buy organs from executed Chinese prisoners [Independent]