peHUB First Read

* Om Malik to entrepreneurs: User experience matters than user amazement * Shades of Mortimer and Randolph? PAI Partners' ex-CEO and former sector head are planning to launch a new firm. * Dow Jones releases 2009 VC-backed exit data (ours comes later this morning). Overall 2009 liquidity down 34% from 2008. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb, the Nikkei hits a 15-month closing high and China and Hong Kong shares fall on policy concerns. * David Carr: Why Twitter will endure * Dan Gross on the dangers of economic pessimism * The decade's 20 worst food trends: "The Raw Food movement. Leave it to the human race in this day and age to find something wrong with fire." * Four ex-NFL quarterbacks have been added as defendants in a civil suit against alleged Ponzi schemer Triton Financial. * Mike Greeley (Flybridge) and Paul Maeder (Highland) make their case against changing the tax treatment of carried interest. Per usual, it's mostly a behavioral argument -- VC investment (and thus successful entrepreneurship) will slow if taxes are raised on VC profits. Also per usual, it's bunk. Will Flybridge and/or Highland stop investing if carried interest tax treatment changes? Of course not. Remember, VC investment was at record-high levels back in the late 1990s, when capital gains rates were much higher than they are today. I like both of these guys personally, and I'm not sure if they're simply putting the best face on a bad case, or if they honestly believe VCs deserve preferential tax treatment to other performance-incented money managers... My guess is that it's actually the latter...