Carnival of the Capitalists
Published August 24, 2004
Great timing is a factor consistently overlooked in business success. Personally I'd much prefer a mediocre idea whose time is right, than a great idea executed by a brilliant team if the timing is a little off.
Anyway, to our our final post. This is called Carnival of the Capitalists, so it's only fitting to end with a staunch defense of Capitalism itself. Brian Gongol at Hall of Creative Destruction puts the naysayers, Marxists and anti-free marketers to rights.
Next week's CotC is at New Dog Old Trick so send your entries to the usual address: capitalists -at- elhide.com.
That's about it for this week. Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed my pick as much as I enjoyed picking them.
Russell
SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: The late, great Doulas Adams wrote "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Well, quite a few of our would-be contributors seem to have the same view :-)
Despite this (CotC entries need to be in by Saturday night, chaps) my good nature has prevailed and I've included these late entries.
Cap'n Arbyte's blog features a topical post on Price Gouging. This is the illegal practice (in the US anyway) of charging premium prices for essential goods and services in the wake of a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Charley.
The Captain looks at the economic and political pro's and cons.
Meanwhile, Truck and Barter has been looking at the controversy over Public v's Private ownership in cars in Shanghai. The local government seem determined to limit private ownership, forcing residents to look for short cuts (pun intended).
The multi-talented Anita Campbell has not one, but two entries this week. It's against the rules, but hey, they're good posts.
For those of you who are more Capitalists than technologists, RFID is a very important development - another of those "it's going to change the world as we know it" ones. Radio Frequency Identity Devices are tiny little chips that are attached to products (or even people) that can subsequently be read by machines to give a whole bunch of data. Think bar codes on steroids and you have the basic idea.
Anita's first blog looks into McDonalds' use of RFID:
McDonald's customers can use the special MasterCard PayPass card to charge purchases to their MasterCard account. They simply will waive the MasterCard in front of a special credit card reader by VeriFone Inc.
It's a little like combing your hair in a hurricane, as it's not going to save the business, but I guess they have to keep trying.
- Carnival of the Capitalists
- Published: August 24, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Russell Buckley
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This is the first time I read one your posts--excellent.
On the issue of books and their availability. Even when a book sells fast there is no guarantee book stores will reorder or that publishers will publish more copies. It could be as simple as the contract that was signed prior to the book being published or any of a long list of factors. In this case, the book received an inordinate amount of free publicity on the talk shows. It is unlikely that this could have been anticipated. Another factor could be it is seen more or less as a "fad" book. Or, the audience is limited to "mean spirited" right wing fanatics. Who knows?
You might change the word "loose" to "lose" Or Phil Winn might come in here and give you a spelling lesson.
I'll come back in later and delve into this post further when I have more time.
Bob
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hi Russell, looks like I missed that first post back in March, sorry.
This is a cool feature - money is good. Thanks and a belated welcome!