Carnival of the Capitalists
Welcome to the second edition of Carnival of the Capitalists!
What is this thing? It is a roundup of posts that bloggers consider their best, or deserving of more exposure, from the week or two prior to each week's Carnival of the Capitalists (CotC), on business and economics-related topics of all kinds. If you are familiar with Carnival of the Vanities, then you'll understand it's similar, but focused on an area that perhaps gets less attention than it might. Before we get started, here are some links of possible interest, sort of like the ads and coming attractions before the feature presentation starts:
CotC Info and Host List page, where you can always find out where a future, past or current CotC is being hosted, as well as info about it and how to enter. Another source of original info on CotC is BusinessPundit's original post announcing our plans.
BusinessPundit hosted last week's CotC, if you haven't checked that out yet. Highly recommended. Last week's Carnival of the Vanities, our sibling of sorts, was at Priorities & Frivolities and is also good stuff.
The next Carnival of the Vanities will be hosted by Eric Berlin. If you are a blogger with a gaudy post to show off to the world, you still have until 6:00 PM Eastern time tomorrow, the 21st, to send your entry to eric -at- ericberlin.com. Remember that Carnival of the Vanities is for anything, whereas Carnival of the Capitalists is for business, management, economics, marketing, advertising, taxes and regulations, capitalist theory, pro and con; anything you might expect based on the name.
Finally, the October 27 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by The Noble Pundit. E-mail your entries to Chris at either cotc -at- cbnoble.com or capitalists -at- elhide.com through Saturday, or whenever he specifies.
I am doing something a little different this week, which we leave as an option for hosts. At the end will be a few entries that I have selected and added to the list as examples of possible submissions that were not entered by the bloggers who wrote them, but could have been. Besides doing this for your reading pleasure, I hope to provide more examples of what may be submitted, to encourage even greater participation in the future. Enjoy!
The Carnival Entries
In his post titled Fixing Social Security And Medicare For Good, Steve highlights what will be required to retain a viable safety net retirement system without bankrupting any future generations or eliminating benefits, and suggests additional reading on the topic.
The Single Southern Guy Brand gives us an easy, informative lesson in marketing, branding and customer expectations, things he does on the job, using the context of weblogs and the branding they represent or acquire.
Repatriate's Career Counseling Center Opens and brings us a post from the perspective of a human resources or hiring manager. Good and amusing advice, and things those who screen and hire people can relate to readily. As a bonus, he continues the advice later.
This is in three parts, all interrelated on the full extent of taxes, spending and investments by Federal, State, and Local governmental units.
Bush, the Dollar, and Inflation considers whether current policies, spending and currency manipulation by the administration and Fed are leading us into inflation after the next election.
The IPO Myth and "Real" Entrepreneurs points out that real entrepreneurs aren't about a fast IPO and sellout for a quick buck, but about hard work and dedication at building a business and a dream.
Well, No Net Increase In Jobs During This Recovery looks at the state and future of unemployment, productivity, profitability, and factors that have kept duration of unemployment long and job growth limited.
US Employment Update examines the employment charts and the lag in employment growth versus overall improvement of the economy.
The Libertarian Anti-War Movement discusses the current state and variation of libertarian views on capitalism, property, the war, and so forth, with tendencies toward pragmatism.
Regulation is everywhere, making starting and running a business more difficult and adding costs most people are never aware of. This post is a point by point example of that, showing what is required to become a wine distributor.
I always tell people that the state of the economy is as much about people's perception as objective reality. It is in that light that Steven has More on the Dow and that Magic 10k Figure, in which the public perception of health by hitting 10k could have real economic benefit.
"Ask Auntie Pinko" - Corporate Income Taxation discusses the regressive nature of corporate income taxes, then goes on to explain why such taxes exist despite that.
Bill Shoemaker, 72, looks at at a less admirable incident in the jockey's life, in which as usual the deep pockets are hit for liability, responsible or not.
Joseph Stiglitz, Meet Sam Walton debunks the notion that innovation flows only from the public sector.
Lessons of the Great Depression summarizes readings on the Great Depression and the implications for today, especially in light of the relative timing and consequences of past and recent bubbles.
Customer Support or Wendy's promotes the importance of good customer service in business, as something that can add to the bottom line, with some examples of bad service thrown in for what not to do.
Percentiles Are Not People uses Cox and Alm's 1995 popularization of income mobility statistics to refute the maxim "the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer." Static income inequality statistics talk about percentiles, not real people. A lot of people are actually saying, "the rich percentiles are getting richer, the poor percentiles are getting poorer."
The Business of Sports - The Milwaukee Wave discusses in detail the varius elements involved in managing and marketing the team, bringing them from large losses to breaking even, and building for the future.
Smoking Bans and Private Property Rights is just what the title implies; a discussion of how smoking's negative externalities can be managed through property and the market without stepping beyond private means to government intervention.
Amazon.com Is Full of Snakes, followed up by proposed solution, exposes abusive, unavoidable terms and conditions, such as those imposed in a typical EULA, then proposes a solution.
The "Jobless Recovery" and Foreign Competion asserts that the nature of foreign competion and the view of foreign goods has changed dramatically from what it has been in the past, making matters worse for workers in developed countries by broadening the base against which they are competing for employment.
VIX Foretells Short Term Correction is a discussion of complacency and current economic stimulus factors, in conjunction with current market volatility signals.
Good Leadership Means Developing Other Leaders examines and expands on an article about the importance of leadership development in companies, getting the right people where they are needed and leading to competetive advantage that can obviate the need to outsource or hire outside management talent.
Online Gaming - An Introduction gives us a roundup and introduction to the online gaming industry, the hype, the reality, and where things may be headed.
Why Delaware Is A Corporation Magnet examines why that state is such a predominant choice by corporations across the country and, surprise, it's not because Delaware has less complex state codes.
Open Source Doomed?!? presents and builds on the assertion is that gift cultures are actually quite capitalistic, examining the current state and future of open source software and potential liability issues in light of that.
Rolling in the Dough is a review of the book Making Dough: The 12 Secret Ingredients of Krispy Kreme's Sweet Success from an admitted Krispy Kreme junkie.
Is It Really a 'Jobless Recovery'? seems to be a popular question these days, and this entry discusses it from the perspective of unaccounted self-employment, consulting, and returns to school possibly skewing the numbers.
The Root of Bolivia's Suffering is not, as many would have you believe, caused by capitalism, but instead has other sources unveiled in this informative post.
Neurocompetitive Advantage looks at mental health as a competitive, productivity advantage, and the potential advent of neuroceuticals to improve mental function toward that end.
Host Picks
In this section are a few - not many because I ran short on time - posts I saw on blogs here and there that could have been entered into Carnival of the Capitalists by their authors. We leave it to each week's host whether to add any additional discoveries like these.
The Wheels of Commerce is a history of capitalism, recommended and excerpted in the area of early modern monetary issues in this post.
Unintended Consequences is a brief discussion of just that, with respect to business and employment in light of the new do not call list.
Brands, Advertising, and Packaged Goods is a wry commentary on brand building and management of commoditized products.
Mother Always Said, Don't Brag is a cautionary look at how marketing puffery can get you into legal trouble, and can potentially be construed as material misstatements rather than mere boastful marketing language. (Thanks to Trademark Blog for leading me to this gem.)
Manage Me is a classic look at differing perceptions between managers and workers, how workers can react, types of managers, and how sticking to the book can actually make productivity worse.
MORE...
COMMENTS
A nice summary. Might want to check out Marginal Revolution's Doctor Drain and Postrel's Brain Drain. Where will biotech really flourish? Singapore.
Looks great! Appreciate the hard work!
Ryan
Jay,
The link to my post is wrong.
Posted by: Sorge on Oct 20, 03 | 10:34 pm
Argh! And it took this long for anyone to tell me? There have been like 2000 visitors to this post. I can't believe in the five times I went through everything I missed that. Stand by for correction!
Posted by: Jay Solo on Oct 20, 03 | 11:21 pm
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