Corporations have led the way in addressing environmental, social and governance issues, but the private equity community is catching up, says Lauren Koopman, a director in the sustainable business solutions team at the global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

President Obama brought new attention to the carried interest debate on Wednesday by unveiling a budget with a proposed change in how venture capitalists and private equity managers are taxed on investment income. Don’t expect a quick tax hike.

An official in the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission said last month that the agency has its eye on several industry practices that could disadvantage investors, such as the charging of deal fees and the cherry-picking of deals.

Guest blogger Andrew McCune wonders what will happen if Congress and President Obama don’t come to a comprise on the fiscal cliff. No compromise will produce a negative short term impact on the economy and lower M&A in 2013, he says.

Joseph Massoud, the co-founder of buyout firm Compass Group Management, settled insider trading charges the Securities and Exchange Commission had brought against him.

Outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro delayed immediately implementing a rule to lift a ban on broader-based advertising for private placements in part because she feared it would tarnish her legacy as a pro-investor leader of the agency, internal SEC emails obtained by a U.S. House of Representatives oversight panel show.

MorrisAnderson director Mark Iammartino weighs in with a guest post and tells lenders that deep-dives can help unearth operational issues before they come overwhelming obstacles. And he’s got a great example of what not to do.

The sun is shining brightly for SoloPower, a small solar power company that is using federal funding (the same loan guarantee provided under the controversial program that supported Solyndra) to launch production.

Google, Amazon.com, eBay, Facebook and other Internet companies have formed a lobbying group called The Internet Association to tackle regulatory and political issues in Washington, D.C., and it is due to kick off on Wednesday, Reuters reports

Increasingly, startups are likely to take on courtroom battles–coming at a time when their big strategic counterparts are also spending big on their legal strategies. But can NPEs squeeze the life out of Silicon Valley?