Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Stephen Foley: Another big name joins the tech bubble

Saturday 02 July 2011 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

US Outlook: On the subject of departures from Mr Obama's economics team, the president's former chief adviser and Harvard professor, Larry Summers, joined the advisers of Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm this week.

Andreessen Horowitz is one of the biggest culprits inflating the prices of tech companies, and is hard to see Mr Summers' arrival as anything but a signal that we are in bubble territory now.

It would be uncouth for Mr Summers to go back to Wall Street, where he made millions on the board of a hedge fund last time he was out of government, but by going to Silicon Valley he has put his snout as close to the feeding trough as is politically acceptable.

When outsiders flood into the tech industry it is time to raise the alarm. The most worrying thing about Mr Summers' arrival is that he has the connections to persuade university endowments to put their money into venture capital. And we know how that turned out last time.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in