(Business 2.0) – ECONOMY A Taxing Burden

Anxious about your taxes? The company you work for probably doesn't feel your pain. For decades, corporations have been contributing less and less to federal tax revenues, thanks to an expanded menu of tax credits and accountants who know how to exploit them. Corporations today contribute less than 10 percent to Uncle Sam's tax coffers--way down from 1962, when companies paid more than a third. Individuals have picked up the slack through income and social insurance taxes.

ZEITGEIST The Confidence Game

How the mighty have fallen. The public stature of business executives, stockbrokers, accountants, and the clergy has taken a hit during the past year. Following a string of scandals, stockbrokers have sunk lower in the ranks of the bottom-feeders when it comes to perceptions of honesty. And lawyers are now seen as more ethical than business execs. That's a new low for the execs, but not for members of Congress, whose rating plunged even lower following their impeachment of President Clinton.

MEDIA If It Bleeds, It Still Leads

Local TV news has changed somewhat since 9/11. Though core areas of coverage--crime, human interest, and disasters/accidents--remain largely the same, stories about defense and foreign policy more than doubled in 2002, while business and economic news declined. Social issues also took a hit: Of the 7,423 stories examined, 15 were about the arts, 13 touched on welfare and poverty, and 9 were about aging and Social Security.

Percentage of local TV news stories

1998-2001 2002

Crime 24% 25% Disasters/accidents 12% 13% Human interest 10% 10% Defense/foreign policy 4% 9% Politics 10% 9% Health/science 10% 9% Social issues 9% 8% Business/economy 8% 7% Culture 7% 6% Miscellaneous 6% 5%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

TECHNOLOGY Greetings From Biotech, USA

Several cities are vying to become the biotech capital of America. Boston and San Francisco are the front-runners--each has a history of biotech dating back to the 1970s. Philadelphia and New York are also magnets, thanks to their established pharmaceutical industries. All told, however, biotech remains an economic small-fry. Of the 300 or so biotech companies in California, fewer than a third employ more than 100 people.

Biotech activity in leading U.S. cities

[A] Biotech venture capital invested since 1995 (millions)* [B] Number of biotech venture capital deals since 1995* [C] Number of biotech companies with 100+ employees** [D] Total number of biotech companies**

Metropolitan area [A] [B] [C] [D]

San Francisco/ $4,394 406 46 152 Silicon Valley Boston $2,350 290 33 141 San Diego $2,158 244 31 94 New York $1,246 128 36 127 Philadelphia $1,108 160 10 46 Seattle $656 66 7 30 Research Triangle $602 88 13 72 (Raleigh/Chapel Hill) Washington, D.C. $543 87 23 83 Los Angeles $277 25 18 47

*Through year end 2002. **2001 data. SOURCES: PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association; Brookings Institution; Institute for Biotechnology Information