Sure, the headlines are all about the startup bubble, but I don’t think I’ve ever read an article calling the cause of the bubble — cheap money and the proliferation of money managers all chasing the same tail — a bubble itself. I wonder why.

Anyway, the Web 2.0 bubble is actually not as big as 2000-era. Says Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association: “‘There’s a lot less money in the market than there was in the bubble,’ he said. ‘We have seen this before, but we were putting out about $100 billion a year at the height of the bubble, and this year we’ll be lucky if we invest $27 billion.’”

A WSJ article puts the VC funds raised figure at about $22 billion.

Private equity firms, on the other hand, have already raised $172.2 billion in the first three quarters of this year, versus $162.5 in 2006, reports WSJ/Private Equity Analyst. (In 2000, PE firms raised $225 BN). Of private equity firms, LBOs accounted for nearly 70 percent of the total capital raised this year.