Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (193466)	3/26/2009 12:14:55 PM
From: damainman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

"nothing like last time when everybody was laid off." And that's why there is nobody laid off this time lol. I had some in-laws that used to work for Asyst makin' 25/hour QA stuff- those jobs were off-shored and never came back.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (193466)	3/26/2009 11:50:34 PM
From: fatty	Respond to of 306849

Same here in Boston. People got laid off but not in tech. Althrough nobody seem to be hiring.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (193466)	3/27/2009 2:15:30 AM
From: geode00	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 306849

Andreeson said that the valley runs on equity, not on debt so the debt crisis hasn't really hit it. The valley is the tail this time, not the nose of the dog. It will get hit because the economy is down but it is on the tail end. At least IBM received some lousy PR this time. If they get in on the health care records on line biz, all our personal records will end up in India or flying somewhere else in the world regardless of any safeguarding gobbledygook. :(

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (193466)	4/3/2009 10:13:53 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Venture capitalists fear closer government scrutiny and higher taxes By Scott Duke Harris Mercury News Posted: 03/27/2009 05:32:08 PM PDT Silicon Valley venture capitalists, who have applauded the Obama administration's science, energy and health care initiatives, are growing increasingly anxious that the president and Congress will subject their industry to both closer scrutiny and higher taxation. Obama's budget plan already signals changes in tax policy. And new fears were raised by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's statement Thursday that advisers to venture capital funds, private equity firms and hedge funds should for the first time be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and file reports to enable the government to assess whether the funds "individually or collectively pose a threat to financial stability.'' "People are very nervous, that's for sure," said attorney Jonathan Axelrad of Goodwin Procter, who represents many valley VCs. "I do get questioned by clients who are afraid the venture capital industry will be swept up in regulations designed to address problems that originate in other industries." Plenty of debate is expected as specific proposals regarding regulation and tax policies are hammered out, but some form of stronger regulation and scrutiny is widely advocated in the wake of the Wall Street financial meltdown. Weak oversight from the SEC has also been blamed in the failure to detect financier Bernie Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme and other scandals, noted Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association. The NVCA has long argued that venture firms — as long-term investors that exchange cash raised from limited partners for equity in startup companies — have a unique role in stimulating economic growth. The industry, they say, has a fundamentally different role in the economy than private equity and hedge funds, and should not be subject to similar regulatory schemes. "As important to the economy as our community is, we invest only about $30 billion a year and have total capital under management of under $200 billion," Heesen said. "We represent just 0.02% of all financial transactions in a year. We are tiny compared to other asset classes and we believe do not pose a threat to financial stability." One particular fear of the VC community was captured in a blog posting by Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley, in the form of an open letter to Geithner: "Depending on the regulation, this could require VCs to disclose specific metrics about the private companies in which they have invested, robbing these companies of one of the key benefits of being private," he wrote. The Obama administration, Heesen suggested, would be wise to focus its scrutiny elsewhere. "Officials at both Treasury and the SEC have stated for years that they have been under severe financial and personnel constraints which have limited their ability to do the jobs they have been assigned to do under federal law," Heesen said in an e-mail. "In our view, these limited resources and time should be directed to those significant entities which could in fact 'pose a threat to financial stability.'" mercurynews.com