Free Republic

During the dot-com boom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital investment firm, all but minted money, making prescient early investments in Netscape Communications, Amazon.com and Google and delivering astonishing returns to investors. Along the way, it became a symbol of Silicon Valley. But the firm has hit a rough patch over the last decade, frustrated by unsuccessful forays into clean technology and by a catch-up effort to take later-stage stakes in social media companies. Kleiner has held a series of status-report meetings with its outside investors this year, acknowledging that recent fund performance “wasn’t great,” one attendee said....

<p>There were no protesters aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.</p> <p>The immaculately scrubbed deck-turned-television-studio contained no opposing members of Congress, no dissenting economists, no partisan enemies, wobbly allies or out-of-work techies to muddle the president's triumphant moment.</p> <p>The roars of approval from thousands of sailors framed by the calm blue sea provided an apple-pie backdrop to what appeared to many to be a magic moment. Unfortunately for Bush, the magic moment is not one from which he can govern.</p>

<p>'TWAS THE QUARTER before the crash, three years ago. The Nasdaq was climbing off the charts, and a Washington economist -- Sen. John McCain's top economic adviser in the Arizona Republican's presidential campaign -- co- authored a book called "Dow: 36,000."</p>