Briac

* Paul Graham: What happened to Yahoo Laurence Kotlikoff: The U.S. is bankrupt and we don't even know it * Megan McArdle argues that the public equity premium may be gone forever: "Once everyone believes that the stock market offers high returns for relatively little risk, that notion stops being true." * Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed, London rises early, European shares stay static and the Nikkei hits a 13-month low. * Are the Barclays layoffs just the first axe to fall? * Pav Jordan: CPPIB and the mathematics of explosive growth * Christopher Mims: Why we need the giant tablet computer known as Kno * Inside the Babson summer venture program, from a student's perspective * Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins says that CEOs are like different breeds of dogs

* Shareen Pathak: What not to do when blowing the whistle * Things my mentor taught me, from Trump, Biz Stone & more... * Ryan Singel: Why Google became a carrier-humping, net-neutrality surrender monkey * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slide and the Nikkei drops 2.7%. * FDIC staffs up to meet Dodd-Frank obligations * Stephen Baker: The (still-coming) privacy boom * Manu Kumar: Twitter best practices for startups * Mark Suster: How to ask for help, favors and intros * Nothing shocking: Wall Street's political contributions are trending GOP * In light of the Steve Nash news, here are some other pro jocks-turned-VC

* Daniel Gross: Is any job better than no job? * Lucy Marcus: Blue skies research is essential * Adam Lashinsky: Where will Mark Hurd go next? * Morning Call: U.S. futures fall ahead of Fed meeting, London loses early, European shares slide and the Nikkei drops on BoJ decision. * Coffee shops begin taking WiFi off the menu * Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan: "Lack of education, manpower will hold India back. We're seeing it in our industry." * Skype, Skype, Skype: Financial details on the settlement with its founders, the $100 million is just a placeholder amount and how Skype plans to grow its business. * Jeffrey Katzenberg blogs about his day: "Hosted the owners of largest private equity fund called TPG on campus ($20B of cash) They want us to know they're ready, willing, able to support us if there's ever anything big we want to pursue. Nothing on the horizon but good to have them in the wings and excited about dwa."

* James Surowiecki: Soak the very, very rich * Mike Dorning: Obama is clean energy's venture capitalist-in-chief * Christine Harper: The next financial crash could come by 2015, and we won't be ready for it * First Read: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares rebound, the Nikkei falls 1.1% and China shares stabilize. * Q&A with European private equity bigs * Mark Hurd's accuser outs herself, via Gloria Allred (natch) * Carolyn Whelan: Is the party about to end in Brazil? * Scott Kirsner: Is it dawn or sunset for VC-backed Konarka? * Fred Wilson: What is a venture partner, and why does it matter to you * Credit Suisse is in talks to spin off its private equity real estate arm. As a related note, I'm hearing that bunch more of Credit Suisse's asset management group (particularly the back office) is in play. * Tony Jackson: "All in all, the private equity model has a lot to be said for it. This is not a matter of choosing between it and the public model. But the recent crisis has proved instructive. It is not that the private model is better than we thought, but that the public model is in several respects worse."

* Danny Sullivan: Let's celebrate Google's biggest failures * FT Alphaville: Can we predict a financial crisis? Does it matter? * Simon Johnson: Geithner needs to be more invested in the Volcker Rule * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher ahead of jobs data, London rises early, European shares climb and the Nikkei flattens. * 20 questions: Dominique Senequier of Axa Private Equity * How to start a media company without experience or seed capital * Christina Romer's exit interview: "If anyone had told me that I'd come to view Larry Summers as one of my dearest friends, I never would have believed it. But I do."

We've spent a lot of time lately discussing micro-VCs, including last week's news on Floodgate ($73m fund close) and 500 Startups (new $30m fund being raised). So I spent some time discussing the phenomenon with Chris Douvos, who invests in mico-VC funds through his role as a managing director with The Investment Fund for Foundations: How long have you been investing in micro-VC funds, or super-angel, funds?? We’ve been active in this space since around 2005, and have invested over time in several of the archetypal managers. Who are those archetypical managers? Well, the main one is someone we actually haven’t given money to: Ron Conway. He’s created a fantastic ecosystem. But we’ve backed some of the people who have taken types of things he does and refined them a bit. For example, one of our earliest investments was in First Round. We think those guys have brought an aggressively thoughtful approach to the challenges of investing in seed-stage companies. I love the O’Reilly AlphaTech guys, whose differential is that they’re leveraging the larger O’Reilly ecosystem. In the case of O’Reilly or First Round or Floodgate, they’ve created brands around themselves that magnetizes interesting people. That helps them punch above their weight.

* Steve Rattner took the fifth * KKR backs off CAA investment: "The town is too complex for me." * Om Malik: Google's purchase of Slide "shows that Google not only has no idea what to do about social, but actually lacks the imagination to even think of anything worthwhile on its own." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London stays static, European shares edge higher and the Nikkei climbs 1.7%. * The SEC gets set to open up the proxy process * Brad Feld: How I think about seed investing as a VC * John Patrick Pullen: How Mafia Wars can fix the media * Keith Hennessey: How Obamanomics really compares to Clintonomics * Tweet of the Day: @timcarville If Barnes & Noble winds up on the auction block, I plan to go to the sale, pretend I'm interested in buying it, use the bathroom, and leave.

* Michael Shnayerson: How Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr lured his luminary clients * Ryan McBride: How Eli Lilly let a billion dollar molecule slip away * Connecticut wants hedge fund managers, and is making its case over lavish steak dinners * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slide on banks and the Nikkei loses 2.1%. * Barnes & Noble is on the block * "Pace of new troubles" slows for American Capital * Catharine Rampell: Why is still feels like a recession * Brian Wong may be the youngest entrepreneur to ever raise venture capital * Shawn Tully: How Evercore has become the new force on Wall Street * Brett Arends: U.S. companies may be sitting on record piles of cash, but they're also racking up record debts.

* How to win at rock, paper, scissors * Transcript of last night's Charlie Rose interview of Wilbur Ross * Rafael Corrales: "The launch of Kaplan Ventures is a clear signal that Kaplan has stopped innovating and that Kaplan has excess cash that it does not know where to put to work." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares stumble, the Nikkei climbs and Hong Kong shares hit 3-month high. * Android sales overtake iPhone sales in the U.S. * Chip Hazard: The original VC investment thesis and evolution of Reveal Imaging, which is being acquired by SAIC. * The first Volcker Rule consequence? Morgan Stanley looks to unload FrontPoint hedge fund * Nick Bilton is having trouble using his e-readers in coffee shops: "I wonder if people went through the same thing in the mid-1400s as they sat in coffee shops with their pesky paper books? I can imagine a coffee shop owner demanding that a patron remove his book from an establishment that only allowed spoken communication."

* Scott Brinker: Data as a new marketing channel * Colin Barr: Ben Bernanke's nest egg bounces back * Chris Dorr: Why Babe Ruth and Michelangelo would have loved the iPad * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises on banks, European shares climb, the Nikkei gains on earnings and Hong Kong shares hit 3-month high. * Would-be Facebook owner says his claim was born of an arrest * Goodbye to The Big Money, one of First Read's regular first reads... * Coca-Cola doesn't have a corporate VC arm, but it does have something similar * David Stockman: "If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing." * Toby Lewis: "Banks are finally getting tough with private equity. They have taken control of almost €50bn ($65bn) of private equity-backed companies in Europe since the beginning of 2009 as a result of those companies defaulting on their debt."