View From a Height

Hello, and welcome to this week's belated Carnival of the Capitlists. My apologies for the delay, but I'm sure you'll find the posts well worth it. And even though it's now September 12th, September 11th can still be remembered.

9/11
Mike Buckley at Mine Your Own Business reminds us why business-somewhat-as-usual is a victory in itself.

Jack Yoest shares his Memories of 9/11

At Debt Free, Steve Faber discusses the terrorist attacks' effects on the stock market

UPDATE: Hank Stern has posted a moving tribute at InsureBlog to someone he didn't even know. It's part of a tremendous blogospheric memorialization of those who died 5 years ago. If I may indugle: may you be moved to tears, moved to anger, and moved to action.

In a somewhat more disgusted note, Ali Eteraz argues that day-strippers in Haditha may not be the most high-minded way to be winning hearts and minds.

Economics
Wenchypoo, who dispenses Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo's Warehouse, explains Why the upcoming business contraction is part of a long-term demographics-driven retrenchment.

Adam at Creative Destruction debunks the Kevin Drum article about Median Income.

Boring Made Dull wonders why everyone asks about the exploding price of college education, but nobody does anything about the costs.

James Hamilton of Econbrowser cautions that some of the enthusiasm about the recent oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico may have been overdone.

Leon Gettler of Sox First notices that someone's sure making money out of the war on terror and soaring oil prices!

Trent of Stock Market Beat examines evidence that employment is slowing.

Marketing
At Scatterbox, Steven Silvers discusses how irritated editors and insiders now routinely spotlight inane attempts to generate positive publicity -- but instead make the companies being promoted look like idiots. Or worse.

Tam Hanna at Tam's Palm claims that lots of pre-defined choices can be economized more easily, while keeping (almost) everyone happy.

On the other hand, Barry Welford at StayGoLinks argues for websites with fewer choices, and draws some interesting conclusions.

Deborah Brown of BizInformer has a new take on Craig's List for customer generation.

Over at Whisper, Steve Cranford reminds us that there's more to branding than just a pretty logo.

Kevin Stirtz of Winning With Service claims that just because a given customer service practice is repeatable doesn't mean it's good.

Jim Logan writes at Bootstrapping Business about 10 Tips To Managing A Customer Crisis.

Kicking Over My Traces points out that if your customers can't understand (or read) your ad, they probably won't remember your product. Illiteracy can reduce even the most clever ads to background noise.

Management & HR
David Maister at Passion, People and Principles suggests that since character is as important as skills, screen for that, too.

Yvonne DiVita of Lip-sticking has doubts about CBS's hiring process for their evening news, and a few other candidates for the job.

David St Lawrence of Making Ripples notes that avoiding failure through parental intervention or by refusing to make decisions is a scenario for eventual disaster. There is no attention on making better decisions, only attention on avoiding responsibility for bad decisions.

Elisa Camahort of The Worker Bees Blog shows how social networking can provide diversity of experience and opinion.

Free the Drones has a post on how to answer a common job interview question: why do you want to work for us?

Carmine Coyote of Slow Leadership discusses how shareholders can help keep management's mind on the long-term.

Peter Kua at Radical Hop lists three personalities you need to hire to go from idea to sales. Not for nothing is "Tipping Point" the recommended book.

Pawel Brodzinski at Software Project Management explains why habit is the enemy of creativity.

More and more employers are beginning improve their employee benefits packages. Henry Stern at InsureBlog has the numbers, and the rationale behind this move.

Michael Wade at Execupundit.com shows how to get upper management’s backing when you want to fire someone.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Dave Free at Seeds of Growth gets you to look at things differently.

Andrew Trinh of Trizoko Biz Journal shows how innovation along isn't enough for David to beat Goliath...

...while A Samuel at New Build Blog uses Rightmove as an example,

Rob May at BusinessPundit examines entrepreneurs making the pitch. Be prepared, be concise, be focused.

Wayne Hurlbert of Blog Business World reminds us not to rest on our laurels.

Andrew MacGill of Diary of a Startup explores scarce resources & economics at their most elemental and tradeoffs in IT decisions for a startup company.

Finance
Tom Hanna at Financial Options gives us his weekly roundup of upcoming financial and economic indicators. And a suggestion that this might be the week to make that patriotic return to the stock market for those who've been waiting.

Moneywise at The Real Returns looks at real returns in large non-American mutual funds.

Policy
Starling Hunter at The Business of America is Business questions the ethics of public pensions divesting from Wal-Mart over alleged human rights abuses.

Nina Smith at Queercents wants Netflix to pay a living wage.

Joe Kristan at Roth & Company Tax Update

Vihar Sheth of Green Rising offers some cheerful optimism on the future of the planet.

Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade explains why even seemingly simple real estate transactions are complex, and why that's not a bad thing.

The eponymous Alan K. Henderson of Alan K. Henderson's Weblog sees mischief in unions pushing to abolish the secret ballot for organizing votes. After all, you wouldn't want to be on the losing side of one of those, would you?

Brandon Peele at GT urges us to Grow! Give up politics! Become a Democrat! Really!, in Politics is Philosophy for the Intellectually Lazy.

Personal Finance
Scott on Scott on Money advocates bad debt avoidance.

David A. Porter at Pacesetter Mortgage Blog calls "state income" mortgages "Liar's Loans," and explores their contribution to the housing bubble.

Free Money Finance explains why being nice is just as good a buying strategy as a sales strategy.

The Prince of Thrift at Becoming and Staying Debt Free argues for leading a cash only lifestyle rather than taking out credit. Hint: it costs less, to start with.

Michael Dawson at The Time & Money Group contemplates how to apply to business concepts, like investing in assets now, to buy your financial freedom over time.

Andrew Leahey at Personal High Finance asks, "Is a reverse mortgage for me?"

Miscellaneous
It's no sin to be miscellaneous, it's just...different.

Ask Uncle Bill about starting an MBA program.

Mike Simonsen at Altos Research Real Estate Insights claims that a local business group got a bunch of headlines this week with a wrong-headed study about Silicon Valley competitiveness.

That's all for this week. Look for next week's carnival at OK, Dork.

Carnival of the Vanities #208 also went up tonight, a special edition completing four years as the original carnival, which inspired the creation CotC (which itself will be three in a few weeks).