A question that came up this morning in judging for the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year competition: Can a great entrepreneur be running an unsexy company?

Now, I don't mean unsexy merely in that the company sells thumbtacks or something. I mean it in the broader sense that the entrepreneur's company is currently only an indifferent performer, but the entrepreneur is a star who has built a great team, is loved by investors and employees, is civic-minded, etc.

I have to believe it can happen, but I struggled for a good example. Anyone have any?

I just noticed that three of the last four IPOs to make it to market before the Rackspace offering had China or Asia in their name. Maybe if it had called itself ChinaRackspace things would have turned out better for that bust of an issue.

As a related aside, out of 145 IPOs priced since this time last year, 13 had either China or Asia in their name. Just so you know.

Marc Faber of Gloom, Boom and Doom report fame is speaking in September in San Francisco to the CFA Society. Should be good fun. More here.

Semi-relatedly, I'm speaking to the same group the following week.

It's happening again. Prophecies of U.S. economic decline are everywhere, as able chronicled by my colleague Dane Stengler at the Kauffman Foundation.

Why is decline so persistently popular in mainstream U.S. thought?