SiliconBeat

Here’s one thing we can all agree on: we are in the midst of interesting times.

While there is no shortage of the heat of opinions and outrage surrounding the current financial mess. What’s in less supply is the light of facts, analysis and context.

A press release today from Duke University called our attention to a white paper written by one of its finance professors, Chris Harvey (pictured), titled “The Financial Crisis of 2008: What needs to happen after TARP.” TARP refers to that part of the bill that was voted down by the House of Representatives Monday known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, acronym TARP. Not exactly the ideal covering in case of a financial tsunami.

Harvey contends that the measure is “insufficient” to end the current crisis and he proposes a “fundamentally different approach” to dealing with troubled assets, recapitalizing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and working to reduce bank runs. Whether or not one agrees with his prescriptions, a few of his facts are quite sobering.

Consider this: Read the rest of this entry »

In 1965 the high-technology industry located along Route 128 in Massachusetts had about three times more employment compared to Silicon Valley. Over the next 10 years Silicon Valley overtook the Route 128 region in number of employees by 15 percent, and between 1975 and 1990 the rate of growth locally was three times as great. A significant reason Silicon Valley eclipsed Route 128 Read the rest of this entry »