>>6
it gets work done (in an order of magnitude more time than any decent API)
Fixed.
>>7
Java is popular in the banking industry for a good reason.
Yes, and this reason is the people who have to take decisions are the least qualified ones to do so; no longer engineers or not engineers at all. Managers. They just circle-jerk with their fellow managers around their idiotic Sun-paid magazines that explain how they will maximize profits and increase productivity with Java-based enterprise scalable solutions, as well as a myriad of buzzwords they will never understand because managers are fucking stupid and useless.