Briac

* There's an arrest warrant out for Jamie Dimon * Anthony Ha: Are TV ads obsolete in an online world? * VC-backed bust: Copan Systems, a Longmont, Colo.-based provider of persistent data storage solutions, raised over $100 million in VC funding from firms like Austin Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners. Now it's been sold for scrap to Silicon Graphics. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower on Greece downgrade fears, London rises early, European shares slip, the Nikkei loses 2.8% and Hong Kong shares lose ground. * Vikas Bajaj: As India sells assets, political tensions rise * Harry Markopolos on the SEC: "They’re a bunch of idiots” * John Doerr on the Bloom Energy launch: "This is like the Google IPO" * Why Neil Young is bullish on the iPad (the CEO of ngmoco, not the singer)

* Economist(s) debate: Does financial innovation lead to growth? * Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) propose cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24 percent. * Juniper Research: The market for cloud-based mobile apps was just over $400 million last year, but will reach $9.5 billion by 2014. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher as all eyes are on Big Ben, London rises early, European shares flatten, the Nikkei slips and China shares hit a one-month closing high. * Seth Levine: We don't charge companies to present at VCIR * Keenan Skelly: The road has gotten rough for infrastructure funds * Kevin Kelleher: Apple wounded Flash, but Google may kill it * Council for Economic Education: "The number of states that now require students to take an economics course as a high school graduation requirement increased from 17 in 2007 to 21 in 2009." * YouTube pulls the original RickRoll video, due to "terms of use" violation. Seems to me that certain pieces of content should, de facto, be considered part of the public domain. And, yes, this would be one of those pieces. * Speaking of video sharing: Some Italian students post a clip themselves bullying a student to Google Video. Now, three Google executives have been convicted of privacy violations by an Italian court.

* Five former U.S. Treasury secretaries back the Volcker rule * Japan is developing an allergic reaction to private equity: "Willcom's failure adds another black mark to the list of disasters that have fuelled suspicions in Japan that private equity investors are nothing more than financial engineers masquerading as corporate turnround specialists." * Mark Suster: "Everybody and their mothers are coming into my offices proclaiming that they're developing the latest iPhone App... The new manta is 'what are you doing about the iPhone?' I have gag reflexes... I would argue that if Apple’s app model continues to succeed it is bad for your health. You – being members of the technology community." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares fall, the Nikkei keeps climbing and Hong Kong shares rebound. * Larissa MacFarquhar: How Paul Krugman found politics * Johannes Huth, KKR's head of European operations, says that large LBOs are once again possible. * There's been lots of talk about "DST deals" -- large VC transactions that provide a later-stage company with new working capital and liquidity for existing shareholders (employees, investors or both). Not really new (see Advanced Equities), but something we'll apparently see more of, since DST says it has another $1 billion to invest in social media.

* Matthew DeBord: Did Twitter topple Toyota? * FourSquare asks PleaseRobMe to please shut up. * This didn't have to happen: "Too Big To Fail" underwear * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London rises early, European shares fall on Fed move, the Nikkei slips and Hong Kong shares loses 2.6 percent. * Carol Loomis talks with former AIG general counsel Stasia Kelly (who previously had helped managed cleanup at WorldCom): In her years at AIG, Kelly reported to four CEOs, one of whom largely ignored her, another of whom treasured her judgment and promoted her to vice chairman. Meanwhile her work went from quotidian to crisis-ridden. Kelly resigned on the last day of 2009 -- over pay, a problem that has never let up its tight grip on this embattled company.* * A crowd-sourced attempt to understand how VCs analyze business models. * Harvard returns to the secondary market (a bit of a misnomer, because it never really left).

* Thomas Goetz: How the Beatles created our soaring healthcare costs * Is Nathan Myhrvold a champion of investors or a patent troll (or both)? * Clint Boulton: How Google is becoming a startup incubator * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower with focus on Dell and Wal-Mart, London rises early, European shares climb on banks, the Nikkei gains 0.3% and Hong Kong shares fall. * The tax returns of the top 400 taxpayers * New study reports that states are facing a $1 trillion budget gap * Jamie Quint: Startups should spend time on the things that matter * CalPERS discloses the private equity and VC firms that did not comply with the voluntary disclosures about placement agent use. Some expected (Markstone) and some surprises (GTCR). Here's the doc (.pdf)

* The 100 least powerful people under 100 * Simon Walker defends private equity-backed IPOs * Transcript of Fareed Zakaria's recent interview with Paul Volcker, who keeps fighting for his eponymous rule * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares hit two-week high, the Nikkei climbs nearly 3% and Hong Kong shares gain on commodities. * Is Pali Capital a canary in the boutique coal mine? * New York City is getting its own startup accelerator. * Caroline McCarthy: What Kevin Smith means for the future of PR * Martin Wolfe takes down Niall Ferguson's recent suggestion that America is the next Greece.

* Private equity's most famous breakups * Don Peck: How a new jobless era will transform America * Andrew Ross Sorkin on why it's been so hard to sue the credit rating agencies that signed off -- or gave glowing "opinions" -- on those bubbly subprime bundles. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early on banks, European shares climb and the Nikkei gains 0.2 percent. * Hank Paulson's proposed bank fix * David Skok: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior * Rob Go calls Harrison Metal Capital "the hottest VC no one has ever heard of." * Remember that hand gesture-based interface used by Tom Cruise in Minority Report? Well, the folks who created it for the film are now tryingt to create it for real. * When Fox News runs out of living politicians to bash Obama's economic policies, it turns to people dressed up as dead ones.

* Is the tipping point toast? * Niall Ferguson: A Greek tragedy is coming to America * Jon Steinberg: Great managers/startups don't die at hedge funds * Megan McArdle argues that public pensions are confusing alpha with beta, when it comes to high-risk/high-reward investment strategies. She's thinking real estate, but wouldn't her argument also apply to private equity? * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares retreat, the Nikkei gains 1.3% and both China shares close higher. * Do people work longer on rainy days? * 4chan's Moot takes to the TED stage, in support of online anonymity. * Mega-LBO firms begin tinkering with roll-up platforms, an investment strategy long favored by mid-market PE and later-stage VC firms.

* Senator Kudlow? * Top 100 entrepreneurs who succeeded without a college degree * Emerging market M&A now constitutes a larger percentage of global deal activity than either the U.S. or Europe. * Bill Gates on seeing the iPhone: "Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares jump, the Nikkei gains 0.3% and both China and Hong Kong shares climb. * Greg Beato: Starbucks' midlife crisis * Om Malik pens a preemptive obituary for MySpace. * David Vellante: Is Web 2.0 sucking money away from more critical innovations? * Jay Kaeppel: Keep an eye on tech stocks when forecasting broader public market performance. If tech struggles, look out below...

* It's the classic tale: Boy gets MBA from NYU. Boy gets convicted of financial chicanery. Boy gets MBA revoked. Boy sues NYU. * Eric Schmidt: "The best and brightest from around the world come to study at U.S. universities. After graduation, they are forced to leave because they can't get visas. It's ridiculous to export such talent to our competition." * Big private equity news of the day is Pantheon Ventures being acquired by AMG for $775 million plus earn-outs. It's not like Pantheon was independent to begin with (Russell Investments is the seller), but this is still a major move at a major pricepoint. In fact, it's AMG's largest-ever acquisition. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares gain on financials, the Nikkei closes up 0.3% and both China and Hong Kong shares rise. * David Reilly argues that America could benefit from losing its AAA rating. * How many placement agents does it take to raise a PE fund? In the case of Ares Management, the answer might astound you. * Fisker Automotive is pulling out of Michigan just before its stimulus payday. Where's Jeff Daniels when you need him?