>And it does seem true that the US financial system is structured to allow
>the disgorging of cash from mature industries (the Michael Jensen problem
>discussed in *Wall Street*) and the gambling of that capital in pursuit of
>huge product innovation pay offs
But not much of the disgorged cash goes into new, innovative industries. Venture capital commitments are pretty small - though the possibility of floating a post-embryonic venture on the IPO market is what makes VCs willing to commit their money. Companies like Intel finance most of their investments internally, and Microsoft runs giant cash surpluses.
Doug