An article in last week’s Wall Street Journal explained that the government TARP bailout program features some significant limitations on executive pay. I think the new administration has done a great job in finding a reasonable solution to the excessive executive payments that have gone on in the past. I think the taxpayers will now be much happier providing the multi-billions of dollars for the bailout. Good work, Obama!
We noticed an interesting post by Mark Cuban on his blog last week. Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team. He is proposing a revolutionary idea: open source funding. The idea is for entrepreneurs who need funding for their business ideas to post their business plans on his blog. Cuban has promised to review all the business plans and to personally fund the ones he likes. There are a number of rules, such as the company must break even within 60 days and be profitable within 90 days, and the businesses are funded on a month-to-month basis. Particularly interesting is Cuban’s requirement that the business plans be posted publicly on his blog where they can be seen by anyone. I think this is a good idea for a pilot and it may become a new approach for the venture capital community to fund businesses.
Last week was quite busy for me despite the rain. On Monday afternoon we attended the Xconomy forum entitled Physics for Future Presidents. The talk was very good although I’m not sure I agreed with all the conclusions put forth by the author. He has a somewhat gloomy view of the U.S. economy, and he thinks it will take several years for the economy to approach normal. I have not seen anything that would make me disagree with this conclusion.
On Wednesday, Ray Smilor, head of the Beyster Institute, and Tony Matthews met with me at the house to discuss the Beyster Institute’s plans.
On Friday, the weather being typically bad lately, Ron Arnold and Bill Proffer and I took Solutions to the Loews Resort in Coronado and had a great time.
I have included a couple of photos for your consideration. One of the photos was taken at the recent Chamber of Commerce event — that’s Ben Haddad and some of his former SAIC colleagues. The other photo is of Solutions and the survivors of a recent trip.
— Bob
