There was little surprise and even some amusement when Tim Draper, managing partner of renown Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper, Fisher Jurvetson, delivered an impassioned defense of free markets and loose government regulation at the ETRE conference in Stockholm this week.
Mr. Draper, well known for his libertarian views, spoke as the fear and uncertainty of the global financial crisis have triggered a discussion about the need for more supervision of financial markets. Backing his presentation with charts and graphs, Mr. Draper made his familiar argument that economies grew faster when the hand of government was light. He argued that laws like Sarbanes Oxley, passed after the dot-com bust of 2000, were beginning to stifle the technology industry and that more and more companies would go public outside the U.S.
However, when asked after his presentation who he would support for President of the United States, Mr. Draper said he was going to vote for Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate. "He's shown leadership,"said Draper, who admitted his disappointment with President George W. Bush, whom he voted for twice.