Welcome to the March 14, 2005 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists, the Internet's most intriguing weekly round-up of free-market articles.

We have some superb entries this week, and all are well worth reading.

• Affiliate Recruiting Blog - Franklin Banker explains why affiliate marketing is not for everyone, but for those who "get it" blogs are the perfect kind of website.
• AnyLetter - Andrew Hughes puts forth some ideas for reforming Social Security, without the rhetoric. He suggests Savings Bonds, among other ideas.
• The Big Picture - Check out Barry Ritholtz's post. It has some very interesting charts comparing the Nasdaq bubble with other bubbles. He points out that if past history is a guide, we might see the Nasdaq once again double, but the downside could be horrific -- surpassing post-bubble lows of 2002.
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• Blog Business World - Wayne Hurlbert offers this post about how businesses need to learn from their mistakes, not pretend they never happened.
• BPWrap - A Different Point Of View - Barry Welford suggests a new scale to rate business blogging that goes from "monologue" to "dialogue." Microsoft is at the "dialogue" end of the scale. Google is unfortunately at the "monologue" end of the scale.
• Canadian Headhunter - Anthony Meaney delivers the truth about Casual Fridays and how to dress for an interview on them.
• Capital Chronicle - Rawdon Adams says the British are coming! He takes a look at the takeover proposal of the America's United Defense Industries by the UK's BAe Systems plc, Europe's largest defense company.
• Catallarchy - Scott Scheule points to a counter adding up the cost of the Kyoto Protocol -- and the warming averted. Hardly seems like a great cost-benefit trade-off.
• The China Stock Blog - Ezra Marbach notes that eBay claims to be the number 1 online auction in China, but presents evidence suggesting that Chinese competitor, Alibaba's Taobao.com, is pulling ahead and may be gaining.
• CIO Weblog - Steve Shu writes about the recent takeover bidding for Retek and highlights core M&A valuation studies done in the management consulting industry and the importance of follow-through operations during post-merger integration.
• Computer News - Jim blogs about a new online scam in which a fake email message purporting to come from Microsoft can trick users into downloading a Trojan horse. (See the March 13 entry.)
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• Coyote Blog - Warren Meyer says "I am tired of 6 zillion loyalty program cards in my wallet. I am starting a revolt." He also wonders what all the data being collected by loyalty programs is being used for.
• Crossroads Dispatches - Evelyn Rodriguez makes an excellent point: Marketers can focus squarely on influencing and tipping points and building buzz -- and forget a valuable part of the equation lies in being influence-able ourselves. If you focus solely on "getting the word" out, you totally miss out on the greatest competitive advantage of blogs.
• DAtum - Sandeep Srinivasa writes about how to create an ultra-trendy fashion brand. His post features lines likes this "If you are so unlucky to have your clothes worn by nerds (I wear that badge proudly), you're in deep shit."
• Drakeview - John Dmohowski offers his thoughts on mistakes entrepreneurs make with their assumptions, plans and presentations when meeting with VCs.
• EGO - Martin Lindeskog writes a piece on the Forbes 400 richest people in the world list, noting that the world has an all-time record of 671 billionaires. Among them is Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA, no.6 on the list.
• The Entrepreneurial Mind - Jeff Cornwall says that corporate power in Washington often comes at the expense of small business, as seen in this example from the health care industry.
• Financial Planning 101 - Matt Fisher says most people focus on increasing their nest eggs for retirement. But he suggests another approach to retirement planning.
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• Gongol.com - Brian Gongol was subjected to an unbelievably bold series of phishing attacks this week. He created a guide for how to recognize phishing attempts, illustrating how the practice disrupts the networks of trust we need for a healthy economic society to function.
• Hospice Blog - Hospice Guy gives his take on some rumors about the 2006 U.S. Federal budget and how they could affect the terminally ill in America, especially the home patient.
• Interested-Participant - Mike Pechar points out that even though American companies continue to invest in Germany, the largest job-creation business activities, such as automobile and industrial goods manufacturing, are going to Eastern Europe.
• James Archer - James Archer posts that it is easy to get advice for how to generate buzz for your hot and exciting new product, but what if your product isn't really buzzworthy?
• Land of Opportunity - Timothy Lee points out how Blogger is apparently unaware of or allowing spammers to abuse its free blogging service. He suggests Blogger adopt a system to report abusers.
• Liberty Cadre - Wolfie has a suggestion for British politicians: nationalise the BBC!
• Lip-Sticking - Yvonne DiVita celebrates International Women's Day with an interview with John and Carol Coonrod of The Hunger Project. It's an easy, effective, supportive way for American small businesses to serve a truly global community.
• Mad Anthony - Mad Anthony of the blog of the same name looks at what may be the perfect killer app for online shopping - Target to a T, where you custom-make clothing online.
• Marketing eYe - Ankesh Kothari has an interesting little test about perspective on his blog. He uses it to illustrate how lights and sound magically increase your profits.
• The Media Stock Blog - David Strahlberg notes that Wisconsin wants to tax Internet downloads; he suggests (tongue in cheek) that it could solve the music piracy problem.
• Mobile Technology Weblog - Russell Buckley reacts to being named as the best mobile telephone blog (he disagrees), by creating his own list of top 14 must-read mobile weblogs.
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• No Illusions - Dave Sheridan looks at a new European study finding that the E.U. economy is 20 years behind that of the United States. Among the things that need to change are government attitudes toward smaller businesses and innovators.
• The Other Bloke's Blog - Barry Welford suggests you know podcasting is really taking off when even a major media outlet like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is getting into podcasting.
• Peaktalk - Pieter Dorsman has a very interesting piece about Wal-Mart's stock slump and suggests it is time for a re-vamp at Wal-Mart.
• Photon Courier - David Foster blogs about recent trends in crops-to-fuel technology.
• Political Calculations - Ironman asks "Can the forces of economics, politics, history, physics and football be connected?" He has some interesting charts comparing the trajectory of a football with the depletion of assets in the social security trust fund.
• Pooklekufr: The Kafir Constitutionalist - Tom writes that special interest groups use the government to get their way. "In effect, the privileged group will have hired a gang to force others to do its bidding. Rather than use the gun itself, the privileged group lets the government hold it to the heads of its consumers."
• Retail Store Blog - Greg Manter writes about the new business world of instant markets, and how to capitalize on them with a spin-up retailing strategy.
• Roth & Company Tax Update - Joe Kristan notes that S corporations are coming under added scrutiny for paying owners "inadequate" salaries -- an issue John Edwards came under criticism for during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election campaign. He analyzes what it means to S corporation owners.
• Scrivener.net - Jim Glass notes that interest rates are important to Social Security in a number of ways. Future rates may be more favorable for private accounts, and more unfavorable for traditional Social Security, than many -- including the Bush Administration -- have indicated.
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• Skeptical Optimist - Steve Conover says that a recent Congressional Budget Office chart reveals that a very important question is being ignored by just about everybody in the Social Security debate.
• Slacker Manager - Brendon Connelly gives advice on using body language in the office. Check out his ways to say, "please go", without saying "please go." (Slacker Manager was Farked for this post.)
• Small Business Trends - Over at my other weblog I talk about the attention on RSS startups right now. One VC says it is like "watching a car wreck in slow motion...fun in a sick sort of way." Maybe so for VCs, but the rest of us are about to have a smorgasbord of new RSS products laid at our feet.
• SMB TrendWire - Steve Rucinski says come on over and listen to his 20-minute audio interview of Warren Carter, CEO of MyOnlyOne, a telecomm startup with an interesting franchise and marketing model.
• Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching - Rosa Say refers to the old school chant of Reading `Riting, and `Rithmetic and says the 3 R's for business plans today are ROI, ROR, and ROA.
• The Theocrats - Amadeus writes that smokers and non-smokers disagree about where smoking is permissable. He says, "Instead of passing laws promoting a particular position, why not let the market decide?"
• Thoughts and Opportunities - Mario Jurkovic says Google is going to face several risk factors (named Microsoft and Yahoo) from its IPO prospectus in the months ahead. He wonders if it will cause a move in Google's stock price.
• Wordlab - In a hilarious post entitled "Shop Horror" that you won't want to miss, Abnu profiles that menace to capitalism, the pun-based shop name. Be sure to click through to the rogue's gallery -- worth a few laughs.
• Wyatt's Torch - Louis Gifford writes about the philosophical/libertarian justification for bankruptcy, and criticism of recent efforts to exempt credit card companies. Bankruptcy, he says, punishes irresponsible creditors who think the government will bail them out of poor business decisions.
• The Zero Boss - Jay Allen tells the world that he is unhappy with Volkswagen's service, pointing out how blogs let you tell thousands of visitors and a steady stream of Googlers about your bad customer service experience.
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  Thanks to all participants and to all readers of Carnival of the Capitalists. It's been incredibly interesting reading -- and a lot of fun putting together this round-up of business articles.
  
  Next week, March 21, 2005, Carnival of the Capitalists will be posted at Beyond the Brand.
  
  For more information about Carnival of the Capitalists, including information about how to submit your articles or about hosting the round-up at your site visit the Carnival home page.