When Washington Runs Wall Street.....

As per the WSJ today...

The new laws and regulations have neither prevented frauds nor instituted fairness. But they have managed to kill the creation of new public companies in the U.S., cripple the venture capital business, and damage entrepreneurship. According to the National Venture Capital Association, in all of 2008 there have been just six companies that have gone public. Compare that with 269 IPOs in 1999, 272 in 1996, and 365 in 1986.

Faced with crushing reporting costs if they go public, new companies are instead selling themselves to big, existing corporations. For the last four years it has seemed that every new business plan in Silicon Valley has ended with the statement "And then we sell to Google." The venture capital industry is now underwater, paying out less than it is taking in. Small potential shareholders are denied access to future gains. Power is being ever more centralized in big, established companies.

For all of this, we can first thank Sarbanes-Oxley. Cooked up in the wake of accounting scandals earlier this decade, it has essentially killed the creation of new public companies in America, hamstrung the NYSE and Nasdaq (while making the London Stock Exchange rich), and cost U.S. industry more than $200 billion by some estimates.

Again, Washington meddling may have reduced the potential for some problems but has also reduced the potential for doing traditional business. Washington crushes the ability to make money but I am sure that by worshiping the 'golden calf,' and his administration, that through the sheer force of his will, he will solve all of the problems that are facing America today. Screw all of these idol worshiping liberals. I figure that if one day, I find myself standing next to the Obamessiah, that I will do everyone a service by burying a knife deep into the middle of his chest and make him a human again. He will be the reverse Jesus, a God that becomes human.