Carnival of the Capitalists

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists.

There were tons of great posts last week in the capitalist blogosphere:

David Tufte wondered, in voluntaryXchange: “when is a good worth more when you remove what makes it a good (e.g., a musician wonders whether his reel-to-reel masters of past studio work are worth more if they are erased to record new masters)?”

At The Cleaning Peers and Advisors, Ken Galo wrote:

My advice? Take stress breaks, go bounce a basketball around, go for a walk, go brush the cat or dog. Grab a kid, (make sure you have permission if it’s not your kid) and go play catch. When I was in the corporate world I would stop meetings and ask people to count the tiny holes in the ceiling tiles above their heads. Always threw them for a loop, broke the tension and monotony of the meeting. Stress and pressure are a normal part of our lives, there is no escape, and the idea is to learn to deal with it and to keep it from becoming a focal point in your day.

In Small Business Trends, Anita Campbell predicts that there is a growing citizen broadcasting movement that she predicts will change traditional radio.

Abnu at Wordlab wrote: “Last year, Tsunami was considered an excellent name for a product or company. But, in the wake of the most devastating natural disaster in memory, the word has acquired extremely negative emotive connotations in the minds of everyone. So, it’s probably not a great idea, now, to name a new product tsunami.”

Mario Jurkovic of in Thoughts and Observations, posits that the blogosphere is evolving into a big web of “personal networks of trust”.

On Different River, the pseudononymous poster wrote:

Senator Kennedy suggested expanding Medicare to cover “every citizen.”

But due to Medicare’s payment structure, it can work only if not everybody is in Medicare. Medicare depends on the existence of a sufficiently large non-Medicare health care market. Without it, Medicare as we know it could not exist.

In Marketing eYe Ankesh Kothari explained: “A book is often judged by its cover. And your business is often judged by its location and the clothes you and your employees wear. Act like you are already successful and you will attract clients like magnet attracts iron.”

In Blog Business World Wayne Hurlbert is expanding on how examining visitor logs can be helpful.

Michael D. thinks that the consumer is outrunning the marketer in smallbusinessbranding blog.

In his weblog, The Entrepreneurial Mind, Jeff Cornwall wrote:

Connectivity is an amazing tool that can allow businesses to grow more effectively. You can keep better communication and coordination with branch offices, traveling staff, customers and suppliers.

But, give yourself some time for family, for rest, and for leisure. Disconnect from the connected world. You, and your business, will be healthier.

On Roth & Company Tax Update, Joe Kristan ponders whether lifting confidentiality rules on tax returns for public companies is an appropriate measure to fight corporate tax shelters.

David Jackson of The Internet Stock Blog, explains that CNET’s announcement that it will include TrackBacks from blogs on CNET News articles has import implications, including: “CNET is trying to leverage blogs to enhance its content. But by integrating TrackBacks into into its articles, CNET will further enhance the status of blogs and boost traffic to them.”

John at Monty’s Bluff consider’s how Wal-Mart’s current legal issues and PR campaign might influence future company performance.

On Bizz Bang Buzz, Anthony Cerminaro directs the entrepreneurial, open source and nanotechnology communities to three sites he created of news and blog feeds using the RSS Digest tool.

Timothy Sandefur in his blog Crime & Federalism wrote about Powers v. Harris, what he classifies as probably the most disastrous case for economic freedom in the last seventy years.

At Multiple Mentality Josh Cohen began his titilatingly titled “Sex Tapes as Marketing” series.

Christine Hurt on Conglomerate gave an insight into the Second Circuit and their actions in the Merrill Lynch case.

Brian Gongol explains that that next President should be more like Margaret Thatcher than anyone who’s run for the office lately on Gongol.com.

Ironman wrote:

There’s a heated debate over the ability of the Social Security program to provide retirement benefits into the future and President Bush’s proposal to allow individuals take a portion of their Social Security taxes and invest in Private Retirement Accounts. Political Calculations asks the question “which is better for you?” and provides an interactive tool to find out!

On his blog, BusinessWorks Inc., Harish Keshwani shared his tips for selecting a venture capitalist.

Steve Rucinski in Small Business CEO said:

What many CEOs wants is what I call a sales mercenary, a hired gun to come in, flip their past clients over to their company and do it fast, sometimes with the expectation is for millions of dollars in sales. I think there are a few flaws with this approach.

In Management Craft Lisa Haneberg explained that:

The best middle managers spend much more time moving work forward, removing barriers, and aligning teams for success than they do managing people. In fact, I don’t think managing people should even be a goal because the term “managing” when combined with “people” is imbedded in a command and control model that we know does not work.

The best middle managers rigorously manage processes, organization structure/roles, and practices, and they facilitate, coach, and partner with people. Sure, sometimes we need to make a tough decision and let someone go, but if done right, people fire themselves.

This week on Goobage there’s a rant about statistics and the “education trade”.

Mad Anthony took a look at a “how much of the world are you richer than” calculator - and explains why he don’t think it’s results say as much as the website operators would like you to think they do.

At ktoddstorch @ business thoughts, K. Todd Storch did a week long group blog feature on customer service.

David Foster explored a mutual fund that makes investment decisions based on an analysis of the choices of thousands of participating individual investors on Photon Courier.

Patri Friedman of Catallarchy discussed the economics of breast augmentation.

On Interested-Participant Mike Pechar wrote about the supermarket chain Tops Markets LLC closing six Northeast Ohio stores with a resulting loss of about 400 jobs.

Jim Glass in his blog Scrivener.net wrote about a surprise of the Bush tax cuts: “A progressive surprise… the rich pay more and everyone else pays less.”

In The Big Picture, Barry Ritholtz looks at a new iPod game making its rounds on the net — evincing more evidence that the radio business model of playing music continues to fade.

On Anselm’s weblog, Hill Country Views, he wrote the first in a series about misunderstanding the trade deficit.

Martin Lindeskog, writing in EGO, did a follow-up post on the Russian economy.

Frank Scavo at the Enterprise System Spectator looked at how software vendors are using benchmarking as a way of demonstrating business value to sales prospects, but points out the limitations and common mistakes in conducting benchmarking studies.

Yvonne DiVita discussed some women in non-traditional businesses and how women are entering new areas of expertise, with much success on Lip-sticking.

On Capital Chronicle, Alzahr considered a UK, Australia & New Zealand listed firm that, that amongst its diverse holdings, owns a world-industry leader poised for big growth in the wonderful wide world of thread.

John Jantsch on Duct Tape Marketing wrote:

One of the coolest things about online marketing is that it is so inexpensive to try new things, that, well, lots of new things get tried. Some flop, some stick, but many are tried and refined.

The point is that some of the most successful online marketing strategies offer clues to some great offline marketing twists.

Thanks to everyone who participated. It wouldn’t be a Carnival without all of you.

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