On the Moneyed Midways - August 31, 2007

Welcome to the Friday, August 31, 2007 edition of On the Moneyed Midways, the blogosphere's only collection of the top posts from this week's best business, economics, investing and otherwise money-related blog carnivals!

We know that it's the end-of-summer mandatory government holiday weekend for many of our U.S.-based readers and since so many of you are anxious to get started with that, we'll get straight on with this! Scroll down for the best posts of the week that was....

On the Moneyed Midways for August 31, 2007
Carnival	Post	Blog	Comments
Carnival of Money Stories	Teaching My 3 Year Old the Value of Two Dollars	I've Paid for this Twice Already	The 30-something married PhD mom of two shares her story of how a trip to a musuem provided the opportunity to teach her toddler the benefits of saving for something later.
Carnival of Real Estate	Should Your Home Valuation Deserve to Appreciate if You Install a Pool?	Digerati Life	Did you know that in some areas of the U.S., it can add as much as $100,000 to the sale price of your home if you filled in your swimming pool? Another great post (and pictures) from the Silicon Valley Blogger who points out the many negatives of owning a pool!
Carnival of the Capitalists	A Simple, Three Step Program	PowerWealth	We found Logan Flatt's satirical take on how following his "Live to Fail Always" three-step program to guarantee that you'll end up on the street living on government assistance to be not just thoroughly entertaining, it's also Abolutely essential reading and a very near contender for The Best Post of the Week, Anywhere! this week.
Cavalcade of Risk	What Are the Real Savings in Medical Tourism?	MedTripInfo	Dr. Michael D. Horowitz challenges the claims of 90% savings for having a hip replacement procedure performed elsewhere in the world, taking into account the patient's opportunity costs in finding that their actual total savings are roughly 75%.
Economics and Social Policy	The Deeper Message of Financial Markets' Volatility	Trusted Advisor	Charles H. Green writes about the shift in the way in which the business world works, where success now depends more upon customer strategy than corporate strategy in The Best Post of the Week, Anywhere!
Festival of Stocks	Stock Analysis - Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI)	Investment Jungle	Warren Buffett recently bought into the rail company, but Average Joe's detailed analysis suggests he paid too much, especially going by Phil Town's Rule #1 style of investing. What opportunity does the billionaire see here?
Odysseus Medal (Real Estate)	The Sacrosanct 6% Commission - How About 12%?!	Phoenix Real Estate Guy	Jay Thompson weighs in on a development in the Phoenix real estate market where a seller's agent is offering a 12% commission for the buyer's agent if they close on the sale of a home priced at $450,000 and wonders how a real estate agent can possibly satisfy their fiduciary duties to their clients if they pursue the deal.

Previous Editions

• OMM's Running Index for 2007
  
• The Best Blogs Found in 2006 (and our full 2006 index)!