This is not good. Venture Capital has dropped to new lows:

Venture capital firms invested only $3 billion in 549 young companies in the first quarter, the lowest investment level since 1997, according to the analysis, done by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The amount invested was down 47 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 and 61 percent from the first quarter last year.

Though investment in every major technology sector had double-digit declines, investment in clean-technology start-ups, which reached record highs last year, took the steepest dive.

In the first quarter, only $154 million went into 33 companies, an 84 percent decline from the fourth quarter and the lowest level since 2005, just before clean technology began to take off.

Now VCs do have a tendency to operate in herds and it is noted that the latest buzz and hype was clean technologies.

That said, Software is down 42%, Internet down 31% and Medical Technology down 40%. New innovation eats and breathes Venture Capital. Without funding it's very difficult to even execute on a prototype concept.

The report says only 132 start-ups received any dough, the lowest in 15 years.

Ya know there are plenty of Americans sitting around right now, unemployed, depressed. Wouldn't it be awesome instead of having those people continue in a circular rat maze of interviews and rejections, instead work on the next potential innovations?