peHUB First Read

* Harvey Rubin: Why bankers are like bacteria. * Charlie O'Donnell: How to start a VC fund in New York City. * Battery-maker A123 is scheduled to go public this week. Here's the electronic roadshow. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares dip, Japan pares losses as banks recover and Hong Kong and Shanghai split. * Vivek Wadhwa: What have VCs really done for innovation? (grating veneration of entrepreneurs as immaculate purists, forced to suffer the indignity of investment). * Buyouts examined C-level compensation at 10 of the largest companies acquired by LBO shops in 2006. Apparently valuations aren't the only thing to take a tumble. (sub req) * BoA Merrill Lynch: 40% of U.S. junk bonds are likely to default by 2013. * The Times of London portrays Incisive Media as an LBO victim, a company buckled by the weight of its own debt. Totally fair. What's bizarre, however, is how the authors seem unbothered by the CEO's naiveté about the structure of a deal that made him extraordinarily wealthy.