Roger McNamee, the co-founder of $1.9 billion fund Elevation Partners, wants to occupy himself. When I talked with him earlier this week at Techonomy, he expressed the not now uncommon belief that Occupy Wall St is changing everything. Arguing that Wall St represents “gangster capitalism” and that the secondary markets represent a much more transparent and innovative way of driving economic growth, McNamee believes that the Occupy Wall St movement has changed the “entire conversation” in America and reestablished his faith in the future of the country.
Tea Party folk should probably avoid this interview. Saying that American exceptionalism is a “retarded statement” and telling people who want to return to the America of 1776 to go and live in Williamsburg, McNamee never pulls his political punches. But there’s more to this than a political statement. McNamee wants to export the meritocracy of Silicon Valley to America. He wants to get rid of the crony capitalism that has corrupted our political and economic system and, without going back to 1776, reinvent America in the 21st century global economy. And who can argue with that?
This is the second of a two part interview from Techonomy with the incorrigible McNamee. Yesterday, he told me why HTML5 will blow us all up.