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Brief thoughts on Obama's Muslin VC fund….

10/25/2009

3 comments

just read this article about Obama starting a Muslin tech fund:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Obama-offers-millions-for-Muslim-tech-fund/articleshow/5158238.cms

While I like the idea of trying to inspire the (radical?) muslim
countries in the middle east to develop out of the oil market, I don’t
think our $150M–or even $1.5B–will change anything.

The leaders in the middle east need to make these investments with
their endless piles of cash…. and historically they haven’t (Dubai
for finance being a notable exception). If countries with unlimited
resources don’t invest a couple of (relative) pennies on something as
important as developing their technology, well, what does that say?

The truth is we should be disengaging from these countries on a
business level by putting massive investment into solar, wind and
nuclear. The investments in our recent wars in the region could have
easily made us energy independent by now….. if Bush or Obama were
true leaders they would have focused our resources on the goal of
energy independence.

  • http://stustein.com Stu

    Absolutely agree that $150M is a drop in the bucket and won’t substantially change the Middle East landscape. So why do it? It’s probably a pretty good $150M PR move to show the Arab world he’s putting his money where his mouth. Maybe lights a fire under petrodictators who aren’t investing money back into their people. It’s questionable though how much the PR move will be heard over the U.S. shots fired in Iraq/Afghanistan. Another reason might be getting inside information on the economic environment in the Middle East from investing in businesses there – similar to the way VC’s will collect info. Overall, I think I’m in favor of Obama’s investment- though I’m skeptical about how much return we might see on that money as taxpayers.

  • Justin MacCarthy

    Spelling :-)
    muslin => muslim

  • http://jeffputz.com/ Jeff Putz

    Muslin is a fabric, and the butt of many jokes about stupid people.

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