Since the Great Equity Meltdown, Landmark Partners has noticed an increasing focus on liquidity among leading institutional investors. In the past, most investors used a variety of asset allocation models to optimize their risk-adjusted returns. For some investors with successful alternative investment programs, this led to substantial commitments to illiquid assets.

Although the asset allocations were viewed as a fraction of the overall portfolio, the commitments were made in absolute dollars. When the markets fell in late 2008 and early 2009, these commitments came to represent an unexpectedly large fraction of the overall portfolio value. In some cases, investors faced a real risk that they would not have sufficient liquidity to pay their capital calls and still generate portf...

The Colorado legislature recently passed a bill (Colorado Bill HB 10-1193) that basically seeks to improve the state’s ability to collect use tax on internet sales. This is a tax that most buyers of the covered products technically should be paying anyway but are rarely collected. Most people think those things they buy online are tax-free when really they were supposed to have paid the tax on their own rather than having it collected by the retailer. As we all know, people rarely do.

Colorado and other states have tried to fix this for a couple primary reasons. The first is simply money. They’d like to collect more revenue. The second is to level the playing field for in-state companies. It’s not fair competition if local companies effectively have to charge buyers more fo...

“I’ve decided to write a book,” I told my wife over a year ago.

She gave me that what-the-bleep-are-you-talking-about look.  You may be familiar with your spouse.

“You’ve what?”

“I’ve decided to write a book,” I repeated, slightly less confidently.

“On what?”

“Venture capital and entreneurship.”

“Why?”

“Well, when I was an entrepreneur, I couldn’t find any good books on how this mysterious capital-raising process worked and how to harness the resources and knowledge of the VC industry to help build my start-up. Now that I’ve seen it from the other side, I want to explain to entrepreneurs how it all works to help them be successful....

Recently an entrepreneur/investor/blogger extraordinaire I admire by the name of Chris Dixon touched on the two general paradigms people/institutions can adopt towards one another when conducting business. He first referenced the transactional/legalistic approach wherein labor is exchanged for money in the form of a contract that is enforced by organizations, (especially the legal system). The other approach is one based on trust, verbal agreements, reputation and is “enforced” (so to speak) by the community. As Dixon points out, the world of startups is overwhelmingly governed by the trust/reputation/community approach. 

Let’s just juxtapose these very different paradigms against the backdrop of the modern American university.  As we’ve established in e...

All eyes are on Toyota’s recall of 8.5 million vehicles due to faulty gas pedals and brakes. The recall has sparked congressional hearings, a probe by the U.S. Department of Transportation, possible criminal charges stemming from a federal grand jury investigation and numerous civil lawsuits, all in the name of driver safety.

This aggressive response to Toyota’s mistakes is appropriate, even though the human toll from its miscues has been, thankfully, relatively modest – 34 alleged deaths and a few hundred injuries. Not to downplay this misery, but in stunning contrast, consider this: More than 100,000 Americans die annually in U.S. hospitals because of avoidable medical errors, according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which also says that medical errors rank as Americ...

* Gregor Macdonald: The myth of energy breakthroughs

* Ex-Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz: “I feel for Google – Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too.”

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares flatten, the Nikkei remains unchanged and Chinese shares slip.

* The perils of nonprofit recruiting

* Bank books reveal depth of problems

* Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet: Scale first, monetize second

* Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley: Facebook isn’...

Police are the New Tax Collectors: Virginia hands out almost 7000 traffic tickets in one weekend to raise money for the government. (Economic Collapse via Clusterstock)

Regret Nothing? John Kay says it’s a bit disarming that Warren Buffet and George Soros are the only financiers to take personal responsibility for the financial collapse and bad performance numbers, rather than blaming it on “unprecedented” things like a “perfect storm.” (FT)

Need Those Soft Skills: If there is anyone in ...

* Nick DiUlio: What economists are learning from cyber economies

* The Greek tragedy of Wind Hellas: “Private equity and banking can be very constructive functions of the economy, but they will destroy this industry if the leading players do not regulate themselves.”

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slip, the Nikkei rises and China shares hit 5-week low.

* Recent MBA grads head (far) east

* Is another bankruptcy wave on the horizon?

* Roger Ehrenberg: It’s t...

Uh Oh: Will Meg Whitman’s investments pose a conflict of interest problem? The former eBay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate has invested in private equity and hedge funds. (Dealbook)

Kabletown: It didn’t take long for 30 Rock to parody the NBCU merger with Comcast, and last night’s episode was excellent. (Dealbook)

Is it a sign? Deal rumours are running rampant, particularly in the retail chain arena. As Reformed Broker says, “This market is circulating more rumors than Fleetwood Mac’s record company.”

Cheap Cigars: There was a “who’s who” of Wall Street meeting in January to hash out the financial reform that’s on the table today. Here’s the story behind it. (Reuters)

FYI: KK...