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Washington is Killing Silicon Valley
The Wall Street Journal ^ | December 22, 2008 | Michael S. Malone

Posted on 12/22/2008 8:39:10 AM PST by giant sable

Even as economic losses and unemployment levels mount, America's most effective engine for wealth and job creation is being dangerously -- perhaps fatally -- compromised.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: capitalgainstax; sarbanesoxley; siliconvalley; stockoptions
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1 posted on 12/22/2008 8:39:10 AM PST by giant sable
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To: giant sable

Sarbanes-Oxyly ran off all the venture capital.


2 posted on 12/22/2008 8:41:31 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: giant sable

Not without the compliance of Silicon Valley itself. Hasn’t Silicon Valley pumped zillions of dollars into the pockets of the corrupt politicians in Washinton?


3 posted on 12/22/2008 8:43:30 AM PST by Savage Beast ("Your grandchildren will live under communism." -Nikita Krushchev)
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To: giant sable

In 2050, the Chinese will write the history of the Fall of America. Readers will ask: “What were they thinking?”


4 posted on 12/22/2008 8:44:06 AM PST by henkster (Welcome to the Union of Socialist States of America. You are ordered to enjoy your stay.)
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To: giant sable
Washington is Killing Silicon Valley

Sacramento is doing it's share

5 posted on 12/22/2008 8:46:25 AM PST by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget (July 4, 2009 see you there))
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To: giant sable

Too close to home now...


6 posted on 12/22/2008 8:46:27 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
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To: martin_fierro

ping


7 posted on 12/22/2008 8:47:05 AM PST by null and void (Hindsight is 2020, foresight is 2012)
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To: giant sable

Obama said he’d rather have more equality, even if it means everyone would be worse off.


8 posted on 12/22/2008 8:47:55 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Women were treated like livestock by Mohammad, so Allah must want women treated like cows forever.)
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To: giant sable
According to the National Venture Capital Association, in all of 2008 there have been just six companies that have gone public. Compare that with 269 IPOs in 1999, 272 in 1996, and 365 in 1986.

Gov't could care less, mainly because they don't understand such things. One of my favorite examples is Governor Celeste of Ohio years ago was miffed because so many OH corporations were moving to lower-cost sites, mainly in the South. So, Celeste drafted and passed legislation that would require any company that closed its doors to leave the equivalent of six months wages to cover unemployment benefits and retraining for their workers. Six months later Celeste was scratching his head trying to figure out why there were zero new business startups in Ohio. In less than a year, the legislation was revoked.

Come on, guys, how friggin' stupid to you have to be not to see that freight train coming? Alas, most of the people in Washington aren't even that bright...at least Celeste admitted the problem and killed it. Washington simply passes additional regulations to "fix" the bad ones already in place. Idiots...

9 posted on 12/22/2008 8:49:58 AM PST by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: giant sable

Obama is the president Silicon Valley wanted. What’s the problem?


10 posted on 12/22/2008 8:50:08 AM PST by Steely Tom (RKBA: last line of defense against vote fraud)
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To: 2Fro; all_mighty_dollar; Arkat Kingtroll; Battle Hymn of the Republic; Betis70; billycat95130; ...

Click for San Jose, California Forecast
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11 posted on 12/22/2008 8:51:50 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: econjack

Go check how many of those from 1999 and 1996 still exist.

IPO doesn’t mean jack, all it means is the dog and pony show by the execs was good enough to con enough institutioinal investors into buying so they could go out the door, that’s all.

Using numbers from 94-2000 is going to get you a joke of a statistical bubble, most of those companies no longer exist in any form.

Don’t believe me? I’ve got some Webvan stock to sell ya.


12 posted on 12/22/2008 8:55:45 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: giant sable

Isn’t that the plan? Drive all business from the USA? It worked well in the big cities.


13 posted on 12/22/2008 9:00:25 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (What's Obama's Secret?)
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To: giant sable
Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think a lot of this sentiment is overblown.

There are a lot of venture capitalists out there who are willing to finance entrepreneurs, but the IPO has been replaced by private equity as a more viable form of financing in this age of Sarbannes-Oxley.

14 posted on 12/22/2008 9:01:06 AM PST by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: HamiltonJay
I'm not so sure you're conclusion is right. I checked the IPO data from 1900 to 2006 and there is no denying that current IPO activity is far below the average. True, the late 90's do produce a blip, but the departure from the secular average is undeniable. See:

http://bear.cba.ufl.edu/ritter/FoundingDates.htm

15 posted on 12/22/2008 9:03:01 AM PST by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: Uncle Miltie
Obama said he’d rather have more equality, even if it means everyone would be worse off.

That is the guiding philosophy of the "New World Order". I read material about that more than twenty years ago. Everything is on schedule, including the compliance of the American Sheeple.

16 posted on 12/22/2008 9:08:47 AM PST by GingisK
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To: Steely Tom

“Obama is the president Silicon Valley wanted.”

Exactly. The people currently on top want to stay on top. They don’t want a group of young, energetic upstarts filled with new ideas and new products to come along and overthrow them.


17 posted on 12/22/2008 9:13:53 AM PST by bobjam
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To: econjack

Go back prior to 1990, the 90s to 2000 were rediculous with the late 90s being absolutely insane. The 90s decade as a whole was a blip historically.

Right now, money is tight, the contraction has occurred, so less money is out there, that’s not purely Sarbane Oxley, that’s also just market contraction. Start-Ups were the rage in the 90s, after the tech bubble collapse, it was a much harder sell and a lot of that money went over to real estate and commodities creating bubbles in both of those areas....

It will eventually swing back to start ups, but for a while its going to hide in “safer” havens as this mess cleans itself out.


18 posted on 12/22/2008 9:17:40 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: paul51

Government kills most everything it touches. And it is doing its very best to increase the killing process re: the current financial mess.


19 posted on 12/22/2008 9:20:20 AM PST by mulligan (A)
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To: econjack

Funny thing, Dick Celeste is now President of Colorado College here in Colorado Springs. If I remember right, he was resistant to Ohio raising their speed limit back in 1987 after the states were permitted to post 65 mph on rural interstates.


20 posted on 12/22/2008 9:20:37 AM PST by CORedneck
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