In 1776 the United States government started out on a shoestring and quickly went bankrupt fighting its War of Independence against Britain. At the war\'s end, the national government owed tremendous sums to foreign creditors and its own citizens. But lacking the power to tax, it had no means to repay them....

It might seem surprising to find the term \"venture capitalist\" linked to the work of John McArthur, a longtime academic and the dean of the Harvard Business School from 1980 to 1995....