Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists at The Business of America is Business. The gang at CotC came up short-handed this week and I volunteered to lend them one. IMHO, this is one of the premier carnivals in the blogosphere. As such, I consider it a privilege to host. For a little information about yours truly, try the "About" page. If you want to know more about what I've been written on this blog, try the "Archives" page. And for information on my academic work, follow the link to the "Social Science Research Network." Finally, if you regularly or even irregularly post about Wal-Mart, please consider submitting anything you have to the Carnival of Wal-Mart that I recently started. But please don't do any of that until you've had a chance to read the posts I have chosen for inclusion in this week's carnival. And now...in no particular order...on with the show.

Neal Phenes at Et Tu Bloge presents Chicago Attacks Walmart-Ends Up Like Hezbollah. This is a well-written and thoughtful post about how those claiming to look out for "the little guy" can actually do him more harm that good. Here's the money quote: "The first-order economic analysis of minimum wage laws shows that they reduce employment by raising the price of labor; the Law of Demand teaches that an increase in the price of a good reduces the quantity of it that is demanded. So the result of the meddling is fewer jobs, higher retail prices and less competition. Happens all the time. But the proposal's supporters and the politicians get to feel real good about themselves. And that is what really counts."

Mark of "Sportsbiz" has a must-read post on "The Best Deal in Sports History." Summary: "When the ABA merged with the ABA back in 1976 a unanimous vote was required and you won't believe the deal that was struck by one of the owners of a team not included in the merger." The post gives a whole new meaning to "you get what you negotiate." As Dick Vitale would say "Awesome, baby!"

Josh Giersch of "Josh Reviews Everything" has a post that got me thinking it may be time to crack open that piggy bank. He notes that "After recent spikes in the prices of copper and nickel, some coins are worth nearly as much for their metal content as their face value." If that's the case, I've got a small fortune in small change.

David Maister presents Stop Chasing The Prom Queen and the Star Quarterback posted at David Maister's Passion, People and Principles. He notes: It's been my experience that everybody makes the mistake of thinking that THEIR project is so important to the client enterprise that it must be the client CEO who not only makes the buying decision, but wants to meet all the possible providers (i.e. them.)

Barry Welford of StayGo Links- A Public Diary On The Way To A Patent wonders about whether Microsoft is promoting competition that may ultimately result in its transformation.

Pawel Brodzinski of "Managee" gets the award for best foreign blog post! Though he's writing from Poland, his post about "What attributes a CEO of software-related company should have" ought to be applicable anywhere on the planet.

The ever-interesting Eveyln Rodriguez of CrossRoads Dispatches recently visited the BlogHer conference. It obviously inpsired her because she wins this weeks award for mosting intriguing post title "Women Have Shopping Blogs, Men Have Cool-Hunting Blogs and Other Venus-Mars Petite-Grand Tales."

Yours truly has a post wondering why glam-rocker David Bowie should be getting credited for a theory about on-line music that I (arguably) came up with first! The title is "The College of Rock and The Bowie Theory"

Rob of Businesspundit reviews research "showing that mood does indeed affect work performance." I'll be using this post and related link in my Organizational Behavior course this fall.

Steve of Bizinformer weighs in on the healthcare debate with a post entitled "Small business Healthcare is Sick." His conclusion: "Employees and owners in large numbers are taking risks with their health and their families health. In many cases ultimately putting the burden for coverage on government programs and healthcare providers who are willing to serve them."

Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog has healtchare in his mind too. He asks "Would the health insurance system really be improved if plans were national, instead of by state?" The title of the post is "Got a Few Problems With This..." so my guess is that you can guess his answer.

Matt Inglot asks Is It Wrong to be an Employee? posted at Matt Inglot. My answer is: "I sure hope not." Read his thoughtful post to learn why he raises this provocative question and how he answers it.

Jim Logan presents Small Business Branding or Putting The Cart Before The Horse posted at Jim Logan. His advice is sage: I don’t want to start a religious war over branding. But if you’re broke and you’re worrying about your brand…you’re focused on the wrong thing. Branding and immediate revenue have nothing in common and shouldn’t share the same conversation.

Michael Wade of Execupundit gives some techniques for obtaining candid opinions from your associates.Think of the post as a thoughtful reply to this question: "When the boss asks for opinions at a staff meeting, just how much truth is safe?"

Leon Gettler of the SOX First blog (that's Sarbanes-Oxley, not Boston Red SOX or Chicago White SOX) asks an important question: Why is it so hard to encourage whistleblowers?. His answer: Maybe it's because fear appears to be a feature of modern working life, according to researchers. There are many forces at work that keep the code of silence and collusion in place.

Wayne of Blog Business World posts installment of the "Conversations with Experts" series. This weeks expert is Kare Anderson of "Say it Better." The topic is "How to Build Your Business On and Off-line."

I always appreciate when a blog post answers an important and succinct question. In a post entitled "Online Property Investment Tools" Nubricks does just that. The question is this: "So you’ve bought your new home / investment property and want to sell it on. How do you find out what price is the optimum sale price?"

Keeping with the real estate theme for a momentFat Pitch Financials covers the recent spin-off of Realogy by Cendant Corp. Realogy "contains all the real estate service businesses that were contained in Cendant. These businesses include the leading real estate franchises- Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby’s, and The Corcoran Group." Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

2008 Presidential contenders take note! Brian Gongol of Gongol.com and CotC host extraordinaire says that Iowa's economic destiny is at risk. His conclusion: "Iowa and other rural states are at especially high risk of trouble as the Federal government continues to fritter away America's solvency."

Dave Lorenzo from the Career Intensity Blog explains what it means for salespeople to go "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty.

I also highly appreciate it when biz bloggers give no-nonsense advice appropriate to those who don't have fat wallets. Jeffrey Strain at Personal Finance Advice presents Jobs That Cost Nothing To Start http://www.pfadvice.com/2006/08/03/jobs-that-cost-nothing-to-start/trackback. His summary: While there is a tendency for people to believe that it costs a lot to start a business, there are a lot of opportunities to do so for little to no cost.

That said, there's nothing wrong with providing tips and sharing insights that will help companies with big budgets. Kevin Hillstrom over at "Mine that Data" has a post that doe sjust that. His summary: Many companies face challenges when trying to optimize marketing spend. A simple formula can greatly aid the process of optimizing marketing spend.

Nina Smith at Queercents presents The Art of the Restaurant Upsell The questions she poses is this: "Do you think that a server in a restaurant should disclose the price (without customer prompting) when he/she pushes a high priced item?" I'll give you my answer: Yes! Read the post to see what her's is.

Jack Yoest notes that Senate majority leader Bill Frist possesses at least one formidable private sector skills- he knows how to sell.

Alexander Kjerulf has a wonderful post entitled Top 5 business maxims that need to go posted at The Chief Happiness Officer. I think this post is going to make it into one of my syllabae this fall.

Jeannie Bauer at Bouncing Back explains how How A Bad Boss Improves Your Career. After reading this post I realized I owe a few people a thank you card...or two.

I don't know Adrian Savage of "The Coyote Within" blog but I suspect he has nothing against the two words "if" and "only"- at least not in the abstract. But he raises a very good point about the organizational problems that can arise when the two words are placed in the same sentence.

Ask Uncle Bill doesn't think much of certain pre-employment personality tests being administered by HR departments. I wonder if he'd prefer France's heavy reliance upon handwriting samples as a selection mechanism?

Big Picture Guy over at "Big Picture, Small Office" says that "A true professional knows his ability isn't real unless he's actually on the field demonstrating it." Read the post to see how "Bill, a project engineer, is given the tough job of rebuilding a plant after a fire. Challenged by the everyday things, Bill is able to focus on this daunting assignment and use his considerable talents and unbounded energies to beat the odds."

Steve Faber presents Soros Screws the UAW posted at Debt Free. My question: what's not to like about George Soros?

Jim Logan presents How To Use Guarantees To Close More Sales Opportunities - Part 1 posted at Jim Logan. The post recommends a new way of looking at guarantees- seeing from the customer's perspective: The power of a guarantee is directly related to the risk you appear to be taking, not the risk you take away from a prospective customer. Guarantees aren’t about directly limiting the risk of the prospect. Guarantees are about raising the prospect’s confidence in you.