peHUB First Read

* Mark Geimen asks which is worse: Inflation of deflation?

* Jon Karlen: Capital efficiency in cleantech, and why Vinod Khosla is wrong

* Heidi Moore: Endowments and pension funds aren’t getting enough blame for enabling Wall Street excess.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London rises early on miners, European shares extend rally and the Nikkei climbs.

* Google and China are back in business together

* McKinsey: The five types of successful acquisitions

* Tesla Motors exec says his company is the new Apple

* Las Vegas tries to make its glitz more energy-efficient

* Economist: Attempts to ban online gambling are doomed

* Bill Gurley: Will Google’s deeper vertical integration lead to higher revenue?

* Top 10 personal finance websites. Yahoo is #1, and it’s not even close…

* Hey Atlanta: Our next peHUB Shindig is in your town, on August 5. Get tickets here.

* David Weidner has another depressing story from the financial reform battle:

“Gary M. Brown is a self-described dyed-in-the-wool Republican. He worked on the presidential campaign for Fred Thompson. He voted for Reagan, Dole, McCain and both Bushes faithfully. Despite his pedigree, Mr. Brown, a securities lawyer and law professor, doesn’t hold much sway among the party powers inside the Beltway. It’s not his credentials that are at issue. It’s his stance on financial reform. He thinks there are too many holes, and partisan politics are to blame.”

* The Week in Venture Capital, with Montgomery & Co. president Michael Montgomery: