Rudolph's Ruddy Nose (Wonkish) 

By Paul Krugman, New York Times

Joe Weisenthal has a terrific take on the growth of unemployment in the North Pole. As is well known, reindeer unemployment has surged. Yet the Very Serious Elves who promised that sleigh austerity would rapidly bring growth back to the Pole have learned nothing.

But it's not just the elves. Even economists, who should know better, go on insisting that we need to shrink Santa's route now despite high reindeer unemployment. Some continue to insist that there just is a skill mismatch in the Pole economy, so that we have no choice but to allow the diminutive Rudolph resources go unemployed. This truly is the dark age of North Pole economics.

Imagine for a moment that the pole suffered from an immense foggy night. Everyone would agree in that case that we could put Rudolph's red nose to good use. I know it drives people crazy when I mention that a crisis can be good for aggregate demand—but everyone who disagrees with me is already crazy, so who cares?

Santa Claus is inflating away the future of Christmas

By Niall Ferguson, Financial Times

In the course of history there have always been those who believed that we could celebrate Christmas in perpetuity. And every time, without fail, the Christmas program has run up against the hard reality of inflation. You just cannot expect that producing all those gifts out of the ether will not diminish the value of all the gifts that have come before and all those that shall come after.

The truth about Christmas and Inflation 

By Josh Barro, Business Insider

Niall Ferguson writes: "You just cannot expect that producing all those gifts out of the ether will not diminish the value of all the gifts that have come before and all those that shall come after.

Derp.

Niall Ferguson is a jerk.

The dirty secret of North Pole's success 

By Steve Sailer, isteve.blogspot.com 

There appears to be a silent rule among pundits—all of whom secretly read me—that we not mention immigration and the North Pole in the same sentence. The truth is that the success of Santa's operation up there demonstrates that the accepted orthodoxy on immigration is 100 percent wrong. For as long as anyone can remember, there's been zero immigration to the North Pole—yet the economy thrives, the elves have a thriving culture and there is very little social strife. All that is supposed to be impossible in a monoculture. 

But, of course, you're not supposed to notice these hate-facts.

Open Borders: Why should they stop at Christmas? 

By Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution 

Every year the American government briefly relaxes its stranglehold on our borders to permit the entrance of Santa Claus and his team of reindeer. If this is a good thing on Christmas, imagine how much better it would be if we made this our year round policy? Have you ever eaten in an Elven restaurant? The candy canes are sublime. 

While there are some who think that competition with elf workers would impoverish American workers, there is not a lot of evidence to support this. In fact, the toy making of the elves would likely be complimentary to native production. What's more, the wealth generated by elven labor would add to economic growth. ...

The Candy Cane Racket 

By Tim Carney, Washington Examiner ...

... As it turns out, Santa's little lobbyists had a hand in writing the Domestic Candy Protection Act of 2010. And the former chief staffer for the Senate Subcommittee on Curved Candy now works for the lobbying firm employed by Santa. ...

Here's what you need to know about this year's big Christmas econ-war

By Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider 

[Click to view this 28 page slide show on one page]

Read the whole thing there. Thanks to John Carney of CNBC. By the way, how many Carneys are there?