I have been fielding these same questions from my GP, LP and other industry colleagues:

“What do you think about the ILPA Principles?� (soft voice) “How do you think it will affect my business?� (worried voice) “They don’t matter – we go through this every ten years when LPs try to get the upper
hand.� (with bravado)

Others are either more certain in their opinion or not so sanguine and believe that this effort will have a long term (and dependent on your perspective) positive or deleterious impact on the industry. A few LPs, smaller ones and non-ILPA members are even cowed by the impact feeling that the “big dogs� are dictating their ability to enter into funding opportunities. I’ve been most surprised by the few on the record comments by industry m...

[Ed. note: This paper is the first formal “policy perspective� published by healthcare VC firm Psilos Group, where Al Waxman is senior managing member]

It’s been a long hot summer of debate and, dare we say it, discontent.

Over the past six months, Americans have watched with anticipation and increased trepidation as healthcare reform details slowly emerge. President Obama has appropriately led the charge to alert Americans about the crisis and the need for change. At this point we all know our current healthcare “system� does not work and we have all seen plenty of evidence detailing the symptoms and root causes of healthcare’s failure.

It’s now time to develop a *realistic* plan for change. We need to understand that we are attempting to fix an extra...

In a recent DealBook column by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Guy Hands of buyout firm Terra Firma provides an unvarnished appraisal of the buyout industry’s bubble-era mistakes and its post-bubble outlook. It will surprise no one if the large majority of buyout deals completed during the credit bubble of 2006 to 2008 turn out to be bad deals. If that was the only issue facing buyout funds, everyone could just take their lumps and move on in a couple of years. The core problem is much more fundamental.

The buyout industry has sized itself based on management fees drawn not only on the record amount of capital invested during the bubble years, but also on the record amount of committed capital for investments yet to be made. The pressure to maintain high management fees and the large amoun...

What follows is the prepared text of a speech given today by John Castle, chairman and CEO of private equity firm Castle Harlan, to the the New York Chamber of Commerce.

It is a pleasure to address an audience so knowledgeable and concerned about our current economic situation.

I think we can all agree that the economic meltdown of the past two years has been the worst since the Great Depression. Locally, nationally, internationally – everywhere we look, the economic wreckage is piled up. The causes of all this are many and often rehashed – the real estate bubble, excessive and unrealistic mortgage lending, derivatives whose risks were only dimly perceived. And all this is now compounded by consumers tightening their spending, businesses declining to invest, and bank...

Mr. President,

I feel compelled to write you a letter to express my thoughts and frustrations regarding innovation policy in our country. While I have modest expectations that you’ll actually read this, perhaps someone in your inner circle will and represent my thoughts.

First of all, I hope that you realize how very fortunate we are as a country to have an innovation and entrepreneurial engine at the heart of our economy. It is part of our culture and is a pervasive mind set that is the envy of the rest of the world. Furthermore, it was not created, nor is it (currently) regulated by the government. If you look at the venture capital industry as a proxy (since many innovative startup companies need some financial backing to prosper), one can see how important this ecosy...

* Harvey Rubin: Why bankers are like bacteria.

* Charlie O’Donnell: How to start a VC fund in New York City.

* Battery-maker A123 is scheduled to go public this week. Here’s the electronic roadshow.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares dip, Japan pares losses as banks recover and Hong Kong and Shanghai split.

* Vivek Wadhwa: What have VCs really done for innovation? (grating veneration of entrepreneurs as immaculate purists, forced to suffer the indignity of investment).

* Buyouts examined C-level com...

When a person becomes known for one thing, it’s easy to forget that he once did something completely different. Few people remember, for example, that before Babe Ruth was a New York Yankees slugger he was a successful Red Sox pitcher, with 94 wins, 46 losses and a 2.28 earned run average.

So too, it is hard to remember that Michael Moritz was once a journalist for Time and a good writer before he became “the best long-ball hitter around� in his own right.

But if you haven’t had the chance to read Moritz’s work before, you’ll have...

And Amalgamated Capital makes seven. I’ve written so many stories about new lending groups formed to serve the “void” of financing in the middle market, that it’s time to make a list. So I give you, the recent crop of new middle market lenders (please email with any I may have overlooked).

The groups are in various stages of development-some have raised funds, others are seeking to secure credit, and even one is in registration to go public. While they’re getting their ducks in a row, someone (anyone) find them some deals to finance!

1. Sankaty Middle Market Opportunities Fund will invest in middle-market mezzanine loans with some senior debt and equity. More specifically, it would target credit for new buyouts, rescue financings and secondary...

* Private equity is proving problematic for Gov. Jon Corzine’s reelection bid in New Jersey, even though he’s not actually an investor in the private equity fund at issue (he’s in an affiliated, but independently-managed, hedge fund).

* Text of FCC chief Julius Genachowski’s speech in support of net neutrality.

* James Surowiecki: What to do with the credit rating agencies. You know, the folks that gave good grades to reams of paper that deserved to (and ultimately did) fail.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, Europea...

* Albert Wegner: What’s restricting the Internet’s impact on education is not technology. It’s scale.

* Banks vs. Cleantech: Both sectors benefit from Washington’s policies, but only one group is grateful to D.C. Guess which one?

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slip off 2009 highs, the Nikkei pares losses and Hong Kong pulls back from rally.

* Dave Weidner: Wall Street’s biggest con is M&A “advice.”

* HBS Working Paper (just the abstract): “We find that a company t...