Worker Bees Blog

Welcome to this Christmas Carnival of the Capitalists.

Many many months ago when I volunteered to publish the Carnival on Christmas I think I was remembering an old Christmas TV movie about a town where all the Jewish people in town volunteered to work for all the Christians, so that the Christians could have Christmas off. I can't find any reference to the movie, and no one else I talk to can remember anything more about it either. But when it came time to actually execute on this selfless promise, I found myself altering Shakespeare's famous Shylock monologue. Not "Do we not bleed?", but rather "Do we not also have to do last-minute shopping and go visit friends and families at all of their various holiday functions?"

Well, be that as it may, I am here with the Christmas edition of Carnival of the Capitalists. I have read and included every single submission (I would not want to disappoint anyone on Christmas!) with the exception of those that came in past the deadline and those that represented 2nd submissions form a single blogger.

I'm even publishing this a little earlier than normal, so I'm cheating a bit on the whole working-on-Christmas part.

Enjoy!

Good Little Capitalists
In the spirit of the holiday season I kick off with stories that talk about family, friends...and some even prove one can do good and do business, simultaneously even!

Since holidays are about family, let's kickoff with Yvonne DiVita's post Moms: On The Move and In Control, over at her blog Lipsticking. Who controls the holiday purse strings (and all other occasion purse strings, for that matter)? I give you one guess.

Here with some personal advice is Carmine Coyote, who suggests some last minute gifts that could change your life in the years to come over at Slow Leadership. This is advice we all should probably be following, so check it out.

Murad Ali assures us all that Diversity Brings Profits: No longer a “feel good” program over at The New Business World.

Brandon Peele provides more specific instructions on how a business can do good while doing business in The Economics of Self-Awareness at Generative Transformation. It all comes down to authentically pursuing these four trends: sustainability, leadership, authentic marketing and innovation.

In the spirit of giving, Free Money Finance advises us on how to make our children into millionaires!

Ironic, then, that Dawn Rivers Baker (aka the Journal Blogger) takes a look at some stats that seem to indicate that most of us don't really dream of being millionaires, but rather o f building a life we like and feel in control of in No really … who does want to be a millionaire?.

And since we're on a millionaire roll, check out Travis Wright's review of The Next Millionaires posted at Cultivate Greatness.

Also sharing a sort of book review Super Saver presents Has Your Cheese Moved? posted at My Wealth Builder.

David St. Lawrence from Ripples offers a post that is ostensibly about the Future of Book Publishing, but along the way he offers his own book for free "as a public service to all who are in danger of receiving a termination as a corporate Christmas present."

Rich at Queercents asked, "Is there a human being on the planet who doesn’t feel jealousy? Probably–some advanced souls who are over all this materialistic crap. But the rest of us look around, and rarely compare ourselves to those less fortunate." Rich encourages us to consider a different view during this season of year-end bonuses, and even gives us the tools in the post Oh my god I'm so jealous: the global rich list at Queercents.

I'm not sure if Jack Yoest, Your Business Blogger, is a good little capitalist or not, but he is a good movie reviewer. He talks about Rocky, the man and the new movie in Rocky Balboa: Courage, Integrity, Faith, Victory The Movie posted at Reasoned Audacity. I'm not sure liberals really hate Rocky though..I liked that movie a lot! :)

And in one final (twisted) message of compassion and charity Jon Swift presents John Derbyshire's Wonderful Life posted at Jon Swift. To quote Jon: " When we think of the neediest this Christmas, let's think of John Derbyshire."

Practical Little Capitalists
Some of our Capitalists see the end of the year as a financial and organizational milestone, not a holiday. So from these Capitalists we get year-end advice and recaps and reviews and resolutions and recordings of their strategies!

Toby Bloomberg, who is the diva of blogger relations, shares her recommendations on how to do it right in From Blogger Relations To Blogger Relations Programs posted at Diva Marketing (Blog).

Gina Gwozdz gives us very practical advice on how to Prepare for Year-End Payroll over at Gina's Tax Article.

Equally practical advice come from Wayne Hulbert of BlogBusinessWorld, who shares the basic accounting reports that every company should prepare, even when they're new and small.

Sagar Satapathy give his own prescription for bringing down your debt in Debt Consolidation Lowdown: Is Your Credit Card Debt Worrying You? posted at Debt Consolidation Lowdown.

Ashish Hanwadikar has actually gone to the trouble to record and reveal his entire Investment Strategy over at Ashish's Niti. Now, that's sharing the (anticipated) wealth!

David Daniels records his approach to working on long-term projects in Working in The Long Run posted at David Daniels. David earned a promotion based on one such successful long-term project, so his words carry some weight.

David Maister is Terrified and Needs Help over at DavidMaister.com. He's looking for help from his readers, and they give him more than he bargained for, don't you know!

James Hamilton from Econbrowser describes recent academic research on the contribution that reduced volatility may have made to long-term interest rates.
This is very serious and practical indeed!

Having just received notice of my own healthcare premium rate increase for 2007, I was interested to see Bob Vineyard present Subtle (and not so subtle) Rate Increases posted at InsureBlog. Clever insurance carriers!

In another post that I found personally relevant (given I've been fantasizing about buying a new house and renting the one I currently live in) Dan Melson presents Choosing Buyer's Agents By Commission Rebate: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish posted at Searchlight Crusade.

Silicon Valley Blogger reacts to a recent holiday consumer survey in I Know What You Did This Christmas posted at The Digerati Life. The title may be creepy, but the data is interesting.

Andrea Dickson examines whether her Bourgeoisie guilt is keeping her from achieving financial success in Bourgeoisie Guilt: Can I Conquer My Vanity for the Sake of My Sanity? posted at Wise Bread.

Naughty Little Capitalists
We have some cautionary tales...and capitalists surely deserving of a little coal in their stocking this Christmas.

Joe Kristan presents one such foolish capitalist in his cautionary tale TAX TIP: Don't assume a stupid tax court judge posted at Roth & Company Tax Update.

cehweidel from One Man Band tells us how Microsoft, in an apparent effort to help consumers avoid falling for phishing scams, also manages to screw the little guy...small businesses and sole proprietorships etc. in Microsoft v. Small Business.

Big Picture Guy wonders whether it's "prudence or paranoia that drives the hiring process" in Temporizing posted at BigPictureSmallOffice.com. I particularly liked nother of his questions: "Do we end up attracting the best candidates or detracting from our image as a desirable employer?" Well, my observations of my own and my friends' and colleagues' experiences indicates that current HR practices have naughtly little companies treating prospective hires as though we must be naughty little employees in the making!

Stephen Karlson presents perhaps not a naughty capitalist, but one who is sacrificing a lot to run his business without having to pay any employees. Like spending any time with his three daughters. Is the trade-off worth it? Judge for yourself by reading Griping about unfair competition? posted at Cold Spring Shops.

Michael Dawson is cranky, not about naughty capitalists, but about naughty governments interfering with his capitalism! Read all about it in his post Mr. Government Will You Keep Your Cotton-Picking Hands Out of the Market: I am Trying to Make a Buck over at Breaking the Shackles.

And speaking of naughty governments, Leon Gettler from SOX First tells us that Kenneth Starr is making the case that Sarbanes-Oxley is totally unconstitutional. Personally, I left the employ of public companies shortly after SOX started making an impact on everything we did. And if there's one thing SOX accomplishes, it accomplishes making all public companies feel like they must have been very naughty to deserve such punishment!

And our government is hardly one to talk, at least if you believe the reports that BusinessPundit posts about in Is the U.S. insolvent?!

Finally, "naughty" is a frivolous word...which is not at all what John Bambenek is talking about when he posts Al Qaeda's Economic War and Online Identity Theft: A Perfect Storm at Part-Time Pundit.

The Final Word:

Let's give the final word, since this is the Carnival of the Capitalists, to The Daily Dose of Optimism, who reveals the results of a survey of Financial Bloggers and their predictions for the 2007 Stock Market.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good ROI!