Deadweight Loss of Gift Giving

Stuy guys,
Remember that year we all went shopping together, and we all picked out stuff that we wanted, handed what we bought for ourselves to another person to wrap and gave them out on Christmas?! And we all got something we wanted, and we all spent as much as we wanted to, and it was the best thing EVER.

Read the second article in this list.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/christmas-economics/
Joel Waldfogel's "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas."

Also, I am so not unique:
Woe is me.

Jesus and the World.

So I'm not one to take religion all too seriously.
But there is one thing that bothers me.
When people say, "Okay, Jesus is your savior. I thought he said he would come back. Where the hell is he? It's only been like thousands of years..."
And it's like,
You know what. Last time he showed up, people nailed him to pieces of wood. Seriously, I'm surprised he even promised to come back. If I got nailed to two pieces of (probably splintery, not smooth) wood I'd be like, "PEACE OUT. I am so NOT coming back to this place. You people suck."

But that's just me.

Waiting for my sister to get back from work to open presents...the only present I've opened so far is the one I got from my secret santa at Stuy reunion dinner. The Elusive Quest for Growth. Thanks Christian!

I like this: "I was optimistic in 1969 about the prospects of Ghana, but my projections did not receive a great deal of public notice, perhaps because I had just finished elementary school."

One of my econ profs told me once that he hated Bill Easterly, but he doesn't seem so bad. He seems more sad than angry...and that's understandable.
The world is a sad place, where even a savior's promise can go unfulfilled for thousands of years...