Unexpectedly Intriguing!
24 July 2005

Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists for the week beginning July 25, 2005! Below you'll find the contributions of dozens of bloggers on subjects encompassing business, economics, personal finance, accounting, finance, marketing, taxes, legal issues and technology, to name just a few.

But that's not all! This week's Carnival of the Capitalists marks Political Calculations' first time for hosting the CotC, so it's the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the features that make this blog unique among all others, beginning with the format of the Carnival of the Capitalists itself.

This week's edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists is presented using dynamic tables. You may click upon any of the column headings below to sort this week's contributions according to blog name, post title, category and description. If you're using a modern web browser, the table will automatically rearrange itself according to the heading you selected! Clicking the column heading again will rearrange the table in reverse order.

If you're looking for the editor's choice of the best posts of the week, click the Description column heading. Posts chosen as this week's best of the Carnival of the Capitalists have been marked with an A+!

Information about next week's Carnival of the Capitalists may be found below this week's contributions. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, I give you:

Carnival of the Capitalists for July 25, 2005
(Click the column headings to sort table data.)
Contributor Post Category Description/Comment
Multiple Mentality The Currency of Video Games economics
economics
MM contributor Yoshi has been playing video games and comments upon the unreality of the universal currency that seems to prevail across the gamer's electronic domain.
Bad Example WHEN DOES THE WAR STOP? general
general
Harvey wonders just what it will take to end the war on terror, ultimately noting that market capitalism may provide the solution.
Porkopolis Wanting Our Cake and Eating It Too economics
economics
Starting with a New York Times article, Porkopolis explores why prescription drug prices are so high, and finds that profit motive, as opposed to price controls, offers a better solution to making them affordable.
Wordlab I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation Always marketing
marketing
Wordlab's Abnu wonders if having former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca out pitching DaimlerChrysler's new EMPLOYEE PRICING PLUS offers in television commercials makes sense.
Free Money Finance Don't Believe Financial "Experts" personal finance
pers-finance
FMF finds that so-called financial "experts" are often wrong in their advice, and links to a "gotcha" article at the Motley Fool.
Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog Saving Time With Your Microwave managing
managing
Can you take efficiency too far in seeking to save those precious seconds while microwaving your meals? Steve Pavlina offers his thoughts.
Lump on a Blog The Poetry of Capitalism economics
economics
Lumpy has been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and has found insight into the nature of money through quotational therapy.
JSLogan Coaching Is a Higher Value Service than Mentoring managing
managing
Is there a difference between coaching and mentoring? Jim Logan offers a distinction and finds coaches to be superior to mentors.
Random Thoughts from a CTO The Sweet Spot managing
managing
Taking a principle from Good to Great, Skip Angel offers some ideas that can help managers learn how to find the high productivity "sweet spot" of each person they manage.
Searchlight Crusade The Negative Amortization Loan personal finance
pers-finance
Dan Melson looks at negative amortization loans and advises that "if anyone offers you one of these loans, drag them into the sunlight, drive a wooden stake through their heart, and RUN AWAY!"
View from a Height How Not to Diversify investing
investing
Investors have long assumed that U.S. stocks can be broken down into separate size and value-growth asset classes, but evidence from their performance shows that they can't. Joshua Sharf says its still a good idea to diversify, but not along these lines.
Gautam Ghosh on Management Crossing the Chasm managing
managing
A+: Gautam Ghosh provides good advice in how to adapt from managing just one's own performance to managing the performance of others after being promoted into management.
Entrepreneurial Mind Technology and Small Business business
business
A+: Jeff Cornwall argues that the systematic approach to opportunity recognition is the most important "technology" available to entrepreneurs, and that knowing what opportunities to pursue and which to let go is the most powerful tool we can offer to any entrepreneur.
Political Calculations Effective Marketing marketing
marketing
My mailbox provided a good example of the right way to market a local Realtor's services - if only all my junk mail was as good!
Blog Business World Money Saving Office Furniture and Equipment business
business
Wayne Hurlburt finds that acquiring used office furniture can pay dividends by keeping overhead expenses low.
voluntaryXchange Libtertarian Daydream Coming True? taxes
taxes
What if you could pay taxes to the state of your choice, instead of the state in which you reside? David Tufte comments on a proposed law now being debated in the Senate that would permit neighbors in Hawaii to be citizens of different states.
Lip-sticking Jane Talks Strategy business
business
Strategy is such a vital part of any business plan, yet Yvonne Divita notes that far too many of us overlook the need to bring in outside help to develop a successful business strategy.
Internet Stock Blog Don't Short Junk - Implications of News Corp's Purchase of Intermix investing
investing
David Jackson examines the implications of News Corp's purchase of Intermix Media, despite the fact that Intermix just settled a suit with Elliot Spitzer and still has businesses of questionable value.
Mover Mike What is Blogs: Small Business business
business
Having been rejected from being listed in the Blogs: Small Business directory, Mover Mike makes the case for including his business, then challenges the Blogs: Small Business administrators to demonstrate how his business would be better if it were included.
Landfair Furniture The Other Side of Obesity-- A Follow-Up business
business
It’s been said that there are markets in everything – including providing items we take for granted to the obese. Bev Landfair also showcases Big Fat Blog, a site devoted to fat acceptance.
NetworthIQ Introducing NetworthIQ personal finance
pers-finance
Making it's world debut, Ryan Williams introduces NetworthIQ is the web’s first social personal finance tool, where you can track, share (optionally) and compare your net worth.
interim thoughts… India Stock Markets on a Roll investing
investing
Neelakantan provides the lowdown on Indian stock markets, which closed at their highest levels ever after a three month long bull run.
All Things Financial How to Determine If You're Wealthy personal finance
pers-finance
How do you know if you're wealthy? JLP provides a rule-of-thumb formula to help you find out (soon to be now available as a tool here at Political Calculations!)
Crossroads Dispatches Signature Voices, and Perhaps What I Learned About Branding While Strolling Galleries marketing
marketing
China is entering the art market voraciously, as Evelyn Rodriguez' peek at branding confirms on the heels of a recent trip to one of the largest art markets and artist colonies in the U.S.
Worker Bees Blog Is Feminine Leadership a Myth? managing
managing
As one of the organizers of BlogHer, Elisa Camahort has been thinking a lot about whether men and women lead, manage, communicate, etc. differently, and finds she differs from the opinions of one of her co-organizers.
Photon Courier The Smart-Talk Trap managing
managing
David Foster looks at how organizations tend to encourage a verbal style that is negative, overly complex and ultimately destructive.
Skeptical Optimist Deficits for Dummies economics
economics
A+: In the debate over deficits and debt, Steve Conover finds that economic growth is getting short shrift and provides a primer for those interested in why growth is so important to the debate.
WILLisms.com Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 116 -- Tax Revenues taxes
taxes
A+: A lower tax rate just produced the largest increase in tax revenue in U.S. history? Will Franklin charts the data.
Catallarchy The Competition Fallacy economics
economics
David Masten of Catallarchy makes the argument that competition is a property not just of free market societies, but rather of all societies, with political structure determining how it manifests itself.
Canadian Capitalist Privatize the LCBO taxes
taxes
Canadian Capitalist Arbee believes that the government of Ontario should not be operating a wholesale and retail alcohol business when it has better things to do that are in the public interest.
ROFASix The "Gray Men" in Europe general
general
NOTR recent travels reveal that Europe isn't the vibrant place it used to be, which he finds to be the result of the continent's encroaching socialism.
Ripples: post-corporate adventures Post-corporate Income - How high do you set the bar? general
general
A+: David St. Lawrence offers his thoughts on life after leaving the corporate mothership, when you're offered the chance to re-examine your priorties.
FunnyBusiness Tattoo Lady general
general
Many corporations have policies that forbid tattoos and other "body modification," but Elana Centor wonders how realistic this policy is when 35% of 16-35 year olds have tattoos.
The Big Picture Why Are Movie Theatre Revenues Declining? business
business
Barry Ritholtz finds five factors that are hurting the movie-industry's revenue from the big screen, and touches off a very robust discussion in the post's comments.
Small Business Trends Illegal Immigrants Are a Lucrative Customer Opportunity business
business
Recent news reports say that businesses are now targeting illegal immigrants as a lucrative market opportunity. When Anita Campbell posed the question, "Should businesses sell to illegal immigrants?" it got a lot of varied and interesting opinions.
EGO Blogging and Advertising marketing
marketing
Martin Lindeskog comments on the benefits and potential hazards of having ads on your blog, including a look at future ad platforms, blog portals and payment transactions.
BusinessPundit When Customer Rewards Programs Don't Pay marketing
marketing
Rob looks at research that shows customer reward programs don't always pay, and presents a discussion in the comments section on how good employees can eliminate the need for the reward programs.
MobHappy PR Solutions marketing
marketing
Russell Buckley follows up his previous week's entry with some specific guidance for bloggers on getting what they want from the PR industry.
Gongol.com Industrial Production economics
economics
Brian Gongol reveals the decline in industrial production in the United States isn't a new phenomenon. A brief look at the data proves the shift to a service economy has been consistently underway since the 1930s.
Econbrowser How many people should be working in America? economics
economics
A+:Quite a few commentators have suggested that the labor force participation rate is a much better indicator of the health of the U.S. labor market than is the unemployment rate. Economist James Hamilton feels that quite a few commentators have this wrong.
Ashish's Niti Bleeding hearts and unintended consequences general
general
Is there anything else that can be done to screw the people in the third-world countries? Ashish Hanwadikar wonders if it's possible?

Next Week's Carnival

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by Michael Cage of the Local Small Business Marketing & Advertising Blog. Bloggers who would like to contribute to next week's CotC may use the CotC Submission Form to submit their entries (preferred), or may alternatively submit them to cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com.

About Political Calculations

Now, as the host of this week's CotC, I get one main reward - the opportunity to shamelessly plug Political Calculations(TM)! Here, it's not enough to simply comment upon current events. Oh no. We build simple, easy-to-use calculators to do math related those current events too! (Yes, it's almost as if we're proud of it!) The tools built and found here range the gamut from topics such as election results, investing, personal finance, Social Security, economics and taxes, along with more ordinary posts covering life, stuff and just about everything else.... Just click on the links for typical examples or scroll through the menu for a tour of some of Political Calculations' most popular posts!

Acknowledgements

My special thanks to Jay Solo of Accidental Verbosity for the opportunity to host the Carnival of the Capitalists for this week, and to all the bloggers who made contributions! Bloggers looking for information on how to implement the sorting table function in their own blogs may find very useful informtion on this function and many others at The Daily Kryogenix.

The latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is now available! If you're a fan of the Carnival of the Capitalists, you might find a lot to like about this new Carnival!

Update (July 25, 2005): Extraordinarily heavy traffic may impact some of the functionality of the site - if you encounter difficulty with the tools on the site, please check back later.

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About Political Calculations

Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:

ironman at politicalcalculations

Thanks in advance!

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