Is Obama’s attack on venture capital a necessary consumer protection or another opportunistic power grab?
Please read the article before answering:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12392364…
Exerpt from the article quoting Tim Geithner, speaking on behalf of the administration, trying to justify the new draconian regulations:
“In justifying new SEC registration requirements, Mr. Geithner said that Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme demonstrated that investors need more protection. He didn’t mention that Madoff’s firm was registered with the SEC as an investment adviser and had also been regulated by the SEC for decades as a broker-dealer. Also, Madoff was not running a venture firm.”
Does Geithner know what he’s doing?
If not, we should all be afraid that he (and Obama) is in over his head.
If so, we should all be afraid that they are not interested in a thriving private sector.
Another excerpt:
Says Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers, “First, Sarbanes-Oxley mandated byzantine corporate bureaucracy to ‘protect’ investors. Then, the SEC damaged the Silicon Valley economy by forcing companies to count stock options twice, both as dilution and as expense. As a result, Silicon Valley, for decades the bright spot of the American economy, produced only one [initial public offering] in all of 2008. Now, Geithner wants to regulate venture capital firms to protect us some more. It’s like watching children deface an economic work of art.”
2 Comments to “Is Obama’s attack on venture capital a necessary consumer protection or another opportunistic power grab?”
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On September 12th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Sorry, but it is a power grab. If a government official seems like his actions may be power grabs, they are. When there is no obvious gain or loss for a politician, he is working for the greater good. Republicans on average commit fewer power grabs than democrats. A politician will do all in his/her ability to gain power, and stay in office, unless, they truly are working for the greater good. (I’m only 12)
On September 14th, 2009 at 2:59 am
It is an opportunistic power grab. They need to come up with another plan. This proposal ultimately the investor (you, your 401k, your retirement) suffers. The SEC needs to do a better job. Not everyone is like Madoff. The private sector does need this kind of so-called protection but they do need protection from the IRS, Treasury Department, and Timothy Geitner, and Obama.