Welcome to this week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists from my office at Belmont University in Nashville! This is the second opportunity I have had to host COTC. My has it grown! I hope you enjoy what my fellow bloggers have to say. By the way, please make sure to send your future submissions to the new Gmail entry page.
So, grab a cup of coffee and explore the wonderful world of free enterprise....
Capitalism and Culture
Consumerism gone wild? Not so fast! So says Blithering Bunny in this post about a story that ran in British newspapers on girls as young as ten becoming shopaholics. A closer look at the basis for these claims revealed them to be extremely weak.
Have you ever wondered about the linkage between disintermediation, mass customization, and the willingness of the new generation to consider personal savings accounts and medical savings accounts? Well, Shaking Spears tackles this topic with the post "Buy an iPod, Save Your Child's Financial Future".
James Joyner at Outside the Beltway discusses the economic perils of rich young athletes.
Freedom's Fidelity reflects on Vaclav Havel's biggest criticism of communism - that it forced the citizenry to compromise their moral worth, their dignity, in return for petty rewards, creating a nation of men with no personalities and no true concept of self. Amen!
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Capitalism, Politics, Economics and Public Policy
Here is my offering for this week's COTC on the growth of entrepreneurial activity among blacks, Latinos and women over the past couple of decades. Let's focus on educating the new engine of our economy and getting the government out of their way.
Last week, Coyote Blog noted that there were several comments in Carnival of the Capitalists that people would like to see more articles highlighting the benefits of capitalism. This got him thinking about a conversation he had years ago at the beach.
Election Day may be a distant memory to many, but the blog-sphere seems to be keeping the banter alive as seen in this post from ChicagoBoyz.
Robert Tagorda at Outside the Beltway wonders why our government hates
Vietnam.
Steve Verdon, another blogger at Outside the Beltway, argues that we're far from economic Armageddon.
EconLog examines the transition cost for reforming social security.
Everything you ever wanted to know about labor market intermediation, but were afraid to ask is answered at Deinonychus antirrhopus.
voluntaryXchange explains one of the two reasons that Kydland and Prescott won the economics Nobel prize this year, with an explanation about real life rather than economics.
Ever wonder why we need to keep after the Regulatory Flexibility Movement in America? Tim Worstall offers an example from the banking industry on how the big boys often try to create regulatory complexity to get in the way of the little guy.
What if Oil was at $30 instead of $50 per barrel? That very question is pondered by The Big Picture, and the answer is not all positive.
Everyone would agree that the goal is to have unemployment as low as reasonably achievable and, in that regard, the U.S. is doing a better job than many other industrialized countries. But as Interested Participant tells us, just don't expect the media to explain it that way.
So having trouble understanding economic theory? Byrnes's Marketview takes a crack at explaining it in an essay titled "Euclid, Friedman, and the Marginal Revenue Product Curve."
So how does Pennsylvania plan to lure big corporations? By lower corporate taxes. How do they plan to "pay" for this? By raising taxes on small businesses by about 25%!! Read this amazing story at Law & Entrepreneurship.
The gas tax is on the way out as hybrid-fuel and electric cars muscle their way in, and as conventional cars become more efficient. Here's how Gongol.com says we can collect money to build highways without putting a GPS tracker on every car.
The economics of text book prices is explored by Catallarchy in this post. (Editors Note: As a text book author, I can assure you that it is not the faculty authors who are getting rich off of text books!)
Roth & Company explains how the American Jobs Creation Act signed into law in October adds severe penalties to the tax law for failure to properly report transactions with tax shelter potential.
Show Me The Money!! Finance 101
Capital Chronicle offers a couple of models on how to pick stocks. Although I never really asked him, I am sure that our University attorney would like me to state a disclaimer that I make no claims to the effectiveness of these suggestions....
Treasury Inflation Protection Securities (TIPS) are a type of bond that can protect a portfolio against inflation. Random Roger's Big Picture addresses what he believes is a bad way and a good way to invest in this product.
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Our Economic Fuel: The Entrepreneurship and Small Business Report
BusinessWorks offers us a view into a virtual start-up.
Leadership as a driver for small business growth is explored in this post from Small Business CEO.
One again, technology proves to be one of the great equalizers in the marketplace as seen in this post from The Enterprise System Spectator. Research firms such as Gartner and Forrester are facing growing competition from "open source research," free public sources of technology information, such as technology blogs and public forums.
Blogs for Business looks at blogs as small businesses that engage in self-publishing. Some of us seem to understand this better than others according to this post.
Beth Mauldin chronicles her efforts to help businesses set up blogs in this post.
Small Business Trends looks at the expected increase in 2005 of web-based phone calls (VoIP) by small businesses.
Around the World in 80 Nano-seconds: Global Capitalism Report
Martin Lindeskog at EGO reports on the increasingly competitive environment of supermarkets in Europe. As competition increases, prices are falling and service is improving. Imagine that!
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Four P's in a Pod: Marketing 101
Kate at Outside the Beltway laments the declining quality of household
appliances.
Daily Lunch proposes the use of dynamic pricing in fast-food restaurants.
Thinking by Peter Davidson recommends that airlines should partner with superbrands. As an example, he offers AirDisney offered by Delta to snazz up what has become a rather bland industry. I've got a suggestion: Air Wal-Mart by Southwest.
Lip-sticking agrees with the age-old adage when it comes to marketing to women: make sure that you really understand how to think like your customer.
BeConnected looks at the six questions you should ask your customers at this post.
News From the Cubicles: The Corporate Report
The flight of the CFOs is the topic of "Bye Bye CFO" from samaBlog. It seems that CFOs are leaving their jobs in Fortune 500 firms in large numbers. Some are taking jobs in business schools. A good gig if you can get it!
Wal-Mart has a rather sluggish November as seen in this post from The American Mind.
The Zero Boss laments the end of C2...
Mario Jurkovic expresses his views about what he sees as Hewlett-Packard's inability to serve its own customers by cutting costs in the wrong places.
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Getting Other Folks to Do Your Work: Management 101
The Slacker Manager blogs a keynote speech by Susan Scott, author of 'Fierce Conversations'.
"Blogging for Business" is the title of this post from The Mobile Technology in which blogging is examined as a management tool.
Drakeview finds that while formal project management practices have been around for about 40 years, those who think of themselves as PM professionals are not equivalent to others with certifications and profes
