Recapping the CotC

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is hosted at RethinkIP, and it's pretty rough reading as it was written by intellectual property (IP) lawyers. My guess is that the lawyers specialize in electronics or computing-related IP, since the noise-to-signal ratio is pretty high. For the sake of cutting through that noise, here are the best posts of the week:

Hurricane Katrina

First and foremost, support the Katrina relief efforts. N.Z. Bear's list of charitable organizations supported by the blogging community provides more than ample opportunities to direct relief to those who need it. After you've made financial contributions, be sure to follow up by giving blood too! Political Calculations is spearheading the blogosphere's blood drive. Find a blood drive in your area or organize a drive yourself, make an appointment to donate your blood, and make plans to do it again in 2 months!

Dawn of Frugal for Life wants charitable donations to get to the people who need them, and has hoisted the warning flags for how to avoid con artists pushing phony charities.

David Tufte of voluntaryXchange goes out on a limb in his thought-provoking proposal for how to rebuild New Orleans.

Economics

Financial Methods finds that the probability of a recession occuring is now 20% - largely a result of the flattening the yield curve and increaseing energy costs.

Business

Conference Calls Unlimited provides a list of the 10 Things Smart Startups Know.

Best Post of the Week

David St. Lawrence of Ripples... looks at the Winners, losers, and victims in the third part of his series on Playing a better game of life. His key observation is that "success takes a LOT of work and a very small amount of luck."