Briac

* Ben Horowitz: Four things some VCs do that I don't like * Colin Barr: "Kerry Killinger, the forgotten villain of the financial crisis, finally has his appointment to get fitted for goat's horns." * Galen Moore: "Even the world’s biggest social media geeks know there’s a limit to the amount of time you can spend online." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher on Intel earnings, London rises early, European shares climb, the Nikkei gains 0.4% and China shares hit three-month high. * Eric Paley: It's not about the pot of gold * Big banks draw big profits from microloans to the poor. * S&P says that the worst of European debt defaults is behind us.

* Jason Perlow: Intel should buy Palm * Om Malik: Motorola should buy Palm * Felix Salmon: How financial innovation causes crisis * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, the Nikkei slips and China shares rise. * Goldman Sachs is recruiting endowment managers to join its asset management biz. * Indrect secondary? Tencent invests $300 Million into Digital Sky Technologies * Private equity firms must adapt or die (or simply fade away, collecting legacy fees all the while) * Audrey Watters: "Early adopters are a small, but vocal group. Ignore them at your peril. And focus exclusively on them at your peril."

* Steve Blank: Business plans vs. business models * Dan Gross: The story of America's amazing comeback * Sen. Jack Reed argues for registration requirements on all VC funds larger than $30m, because they may pose a systemic risk. For their LPs, maybe. For the nation, no. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares edge higher, the Nikkei climbs and Hong Kong shares slip. * A visual guide to Girl Scout cookie sales * Bloomberg reports that Palm is officially for sale. * Walking Dead Alert: Barclays Ventures stops making new investments * Bill Gross launches an advertising marketplace for Twitter. Kind of amazing, given that Gross didn't know how to even use Twitter at this time last year.

* Fred Wilson: Reframing the net neutrality debate. * Why Q killed the Cedar Fair buyout * GIllian Tett: Singapore's lessons from the Harvard/Yale investment model. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb, the Nikkei gains 0.3% and Hong Kong shares jump. * Veoh lives! (sort of) * RV maker sues Warren Buffett * Mark Suster: Understanding salespeople at startups * Georges Ugeux: The Volcker Rule does not go far enough in restricting bank investments into hedge funds. * NewScientist: "Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now."

* Ben Horowitz explains Ron Conway * Martha White: How the iPad could revolutionize healthcare * The placement agent issue gets political in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, California's proposed placement agent ban takes a baby step forward. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares drop, the Nikkei sheds 1.1% and Hong Kong shares slip. * Do behavioral funds work? * The SEC details its new asset-backed securities regulations. * Cleveland Fed: Is it time for an overhaul of the Community Reinvestment Act? * One of the best posts I've read so far on the value of certain startups remaining in stealth mode.

* Chris Dixon: Underhyping your startup * Facebook blocks employees from selling shares on the secondary market. * The next "public" pension problem: Automaker pensions are underfunded by $17 billion. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares flatten, the Nikkei climbs and Hong Kong shares hit 3-month high. * The Odd Couple: Wilbur Ross and Richard Branson * 15 Venn diagrams to explain the Internet's fascination with Venn diagrams. * Alex Spiegel: "Assumptions about placebos — the proverbial sugar pills given to patients during medical trials — are changing." * Nicholas Carson reports that Yahoo is considering a $100 million buyout offer for FourSquare, but Owen Thomas thinks it's a ruse by Foursquare's bankers.

* Eric Janszen: Welcome to the false recovery * James McQuivey: Why the iPad actually strenthens Amazon's position. * Simon Johnson: Jaimie Dimon is the most dangerous man in America * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London hits 21-month high, European shares climb and the Nikkei slips. * Regulation as capitalism's salvation * Megan McArdle: Shouldn't we just call Fannie and Freddie obligations "sovereign debt?" * Credit Suisse survey: Global hedge fund assets could match their pre-crisis peak of $2 trillion by the end of 2010. * Dow Jones is reporting that VC firms raised $4.11 billion for 34 funds in the first quarter. This is lower than the Q3 or Q4 2009 totals, but higher than Q1 2009 (sorry, no link). * Brightcove raises another $12 million "on its way to IPO." Does that mean Brightcove's VCs have given up their longstanding efforts to find a strategic buyer?

* James Surowiecki: "Besides great climates and lovely beaches, California and Greece share a fondness for dysfunctional politics and feckless budgeting." * Jim Cramer on IPOs: “If you see the private equity firms are the main investors in a company that’s coming public, call it a gigantic red flag, perhaps the biggest red flag in the investing canon.” * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London climbs, the Nikkei hits 18-month high and other Asian stocks rise on U.S. jobs data. * When a first pick isn't the best pick (can be true of both NFL rookies and CEOs) * Court rules that employee-attorney emails are private * Tom Friedman comes out in favor of the Startup Visa Act. Or at least I think he does, since he doesn't actually mention the startup Visa Act. * More than 550 readers already have tickets for our San Francisco Shindig, which takes place one week from Wednesday night. Get yours before they sell out. * Anthony Ha finds some angel investors who say the Dodd Bill could "destroy Silicon Valley." Now I dislike the Reg D and accredited investor changes as much as the next guy, but "destroy Silicon Valley?" What, is it made of peanut brittle? Persuasive arguments against the Dodd proposals get watered down by such histrionics.

* Jaimie Dimon: We are not demons * Murat Tasci: Are jobless recoveries the new normal? * Want all those glowing iPad reviews in a single place? Get 'em here. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares keep climbing, the Nikkei hits 18-month high and both China and Hong Kong shares finish strong. * Richard Pops: The next policy battle for biotech after healthcare reform * Alyssa Katz: How Texas avoided the worst of the mortgage meltdowns * Foundry Group moves to Twitter platform for deal evaluation (disregard the posted date) * Steven Davidoff echoes some of my concerns about buying public stock in a private equity firm. * Devolution: First, the WSJ began planning a sports page for its NYC edition. Now a gossip page. Comics coming soon?

* PIK toggles are back. No, this is not a premature April Fool's story. * Theresia Gouw Ranzetta: Rx for Silicon Valley success * Kim Masters: Bill Clinton's $20 million breakup with Ron Burkle * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London rises early, European shares climb and the Nikkei flattens. * IBM has a plan to woo software startups * Ethan Epstein: Postal service cutbacks could affect Netflix's bottom line * PE Council puts out study claiming that PE-backed companies "weathered the Great Recession better than their peers." Maybe, but that big debt cloud is not yet close to clearing... * Kleiner Perkins has a media briefing set for 10:30am PT, to discuss "developments in the mobile content revolution." An iPad fund? Something totally unrelated? And John Doerr will be there, taking a break from his cleantech focus (a return to his place of former glories?). We'll have someone there, and let you know what they say (along with the rest of the blogosphere).