Briac

* James Surowiecki believes the U.S. should eliminate tax deducations on debt: "If the benefits are illusory, the costs are all too real." * CalPERS is seeking better terms from Apollo. Is there ever a point where the giant pension will publicly acknowledge that it was no patsy, but rather a willing accomplice? * Andrew Corsello on the Ayn Rand revival: "2009's most influential author is a mirthless Russian-American who loves money, hates God, and swings a gigantic dick. She died in 1982, but her spawn soldier on. And the Great Recession is all their fault." * Morning Call: U.S. futures rise on retail hopes, European futures signal gains, the Nikkei climbs 0.2% and Hong Kong jumps 1.73%. * Chris MacDonald: Can ethics be taught in business school? * Are you suffering from Big Company Syndrome? * Sarah Lacy reports from India: How to profit off the poor and keep your soul

Earlier this week, Google agreed to buy mobile advertising network AdMob for $750 million in stock. Huge deal, but not actually the year's largest sale of a VC-backed company (it's third). That's right, it's time for a list of the 15 largest VC-backed M&A exits of 2009. A deal needn't have closed yet to qualify, but the rankings only include up-front payments (e.g., EA deal for Playfish is considered $300m instead of $400m). Get them after the jump...

* The 67 most powerful people in the world. * Sim Simeonov: Negotiating a better Series A deal * David Reilly: Hedge funds can't mess up worse than Bob Rubin * Lengthy Q&A with Marc Rowan of Apollo Management. Unfortunately, no questions about its CalPERS situation or its planned IPO (which Wall Street sources say it's gearing back up for). Wonder if ARVCO will serve as an underwriter... * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London opns flat, European shares climb, the Nikkei slips and Hong Kong rises. * David Hornik on monetizing Twitter: Bring on the ads * 10 years later: Looking at the repeal of Glass-Steagall * Floyd Norris: A lack of rigors costs MBIA (whose largest shareholder is Warburg Pincus)

* Brad Feld: Board meeting lessons from the Supreme Court * Buyout blackball? Why private equity is having such a hard time getting into bank deals. * What lessons can be drawn from the Bear Stearns aquittals? Mark Gimein says it's that white dollar defendants should sit down and shut up. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London opens flat, European shares stay put, the Nikkei slips and Hong Kong loses 1.01%. * Four stages of private equity fund life. * Zynga CEO Mark Pincus discusses the Playfish acquisition by EA. * As we wait to see if TPG Capital partners with American Airlines for a stake in Japan Airlines, Shasha Dai runs down TPG's hits and misses in the airline space.

* AIG's CEO threatens to quit, due to that meddlin' government (you know, the same government that saved AIG's hide and made it possible for there to be a CEO job in the first place). So much for dancing with the one who brung you. * Bailout for burglers? The recession helped reduce break-ins. * Michael Moe believes that Twitter is worth less than its latest VC valuation. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares keep gaining, the Nikkei flattens and Hong Kong shares hit 15-month high. * Patrick Keane, CEO of Associated Content, makes the case against "engagement" being the key online advertising metric. * Pay to Play? The photo on this News & Observer story is of former North Carolina CIO Patricia Garrick, but it's Credit Suisse execs that comes off as looking underhanded. * John Doerr is NOT running for governor of California, despite some arguments put forth for his candidacy. As an aside, Joanna Rees is indeed running for mayor of San Francisco, based on a meet-and-greet Evite I was forwarded. * A call for help: Alan Cohen, the head of credit and distressed debt investing at York Capital Management, is suffering from leukemia and is in need of a blood stem cell match. There will be a match drive on Nov. 19 in New York City. Please go here for more details.

* Neil Unmack: "Bond market growth has allowed companies to sidestep banks, which are reining in lending. The next stage in this disintermediation process is to extend it to areas such as funding leveraged buyouts, where banks are still in retreat. There are limits, however, to how far it can be applied." * Matthew Lynn: "There has never been a better time to polish your CV, shine your shoes and start a new hedge fund." * InBev, Part II? PE firms salivate over the divestitures that could result from a Kraft-Cadbury merger. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower following yesterday's rally, London rises early, European rally continues, the Nikkei gains on tech and Hong Kong hits two-week high. * Saul Klein: Seedcamp, thoughts on the evolution of a European startup * Tweet of the Day: @pkedrosky "Anyone citing sub-5-year venture capital data as a sign of industry improvement should be spanked." * Wall Street storm clouds: "The average maturities of new debt issuance by Moody’s-rated banks around the world fell from 7.2 years to 4.7 years over the last five years — the shortest average maturity on record." * Note to self? The Boston Globe runs an editorial on Steve Pagliuca's Senate candidacy, saying that his private equity career "deserves a fair and full vetting." Ummm... Was that in question? Reads to me like an editorial assignment for the newsdesk that somehow got published.

* Skype Scorecard: Who won and who lost? * Bad investment habits come back from the dead * Mark Gimein: Do market libertarians believe their own hype? * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares gain after G20, the Nikkei edges up and Shanghai hits 3-month high. * The technology behind Madoff's scam * Fred Wilson on the inclusion of option pools in the pre-money valuation of VC deals: "The option pool is absolutely a piece of the price negotiation. But it is a very important one." * CalPERS board president Rob Feckner asks his fellow board members to stop meeting privately with fund placement agents. He should also ask why they were ever doing so in the first place. Pretty sure that's why CalPERS spends all that money on investment staff and outside gatekeepers.

* Want to kill bankers? There's an app for that * Justin Fox: Are finance professors to blame for the financial crisis? * Floyd Norris says goodbye to SarBox reforms. Now what will VCs blame their lack of portfolio company IPOs on? * Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed ahead of payroll figures, London rises early, European shares gain, the Nikkei edges higher and Shanghai jumps 5.6% for the week. * PEW Research says that U.S. college enrollment has hit an all-time high * View from TechStars: How Boston, Boulder and Seattle match up as tech innovation hubs * Kenichi Kiso, a former partner with Japanese private equity firm Unison Capital, has died after it became known that he was being investigated for insider trading (sub req). Unison dismissed Kiso when it learned of the investigation, and he died the following day of what are still unknown causes. * Live-blog of yesterday's twofer earnings call for Ares Capital and Allied Capital * Rhode Island bans indoor prostitution. Now is that any way to deal with a 12.3% unemployment rate?

* Mark Suster: Are business plans still necessary? * Will Jon Corzine return to Wall Street? (my bet is a private equity firm, but I'm thematically biased) * Microsoft lays off Don Dodge, who was basically the software giant's flesh-and-blood ambassador to startups big and small. Arrington nails it. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares drop in anticipation of BoE and ECB decisions, the Nikkei loses 1.3% and China shares hit one-month high. * CNBC's 15 most embarrassing bloopers * Recession's Dividend: A bumper crop of corporate tax credits * Does the Yankees' victory portend a stock market rally? Well, maybe not. * What's a few million between cronies? WSJ discovers that private equity firms paid ARVCO $65 million to secure business with CalPERS, rather than the originally-reported $50 million.

* Q&A with Henry Kravis and George Roberts * Megan McArdle: Should I stop worrying and learn to love the deficit? * Intel Capital's Ashish Patel warns that European venture capitalists "will get more and more risk averse, take safer bets, in order to provide and produce better returns.” * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher as all eyes are fixed on the Fed, London rises early, European shares climb on banks and autos, the Nikkei reverses course and both Hong Kong and Shanghai gain. * An end to the Skype battle may be near, with Index Ventures out and Skype's founders in. * William Cohan: Is Larrry Summers the financial crisis MVP? * The CIA keeps investing in semiconductors. * Dan Gross: Is there a contradiction between a strong U.S. stock market and a weak U.S. consumer? Maybe not.