Thursday, December 11, 2008

Christmas Bailout! Is Santa "Too Big to Fail"?

While I'm not sure I'd share this with younger students, I always appreciate humor that is both seasonal and topical. This article from today's edition of The Wall Street Journal is both. And you should definitely click on the video tab.

I look forward to your comments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

santa will never be gone from the us economy and our daily lives. Santa won’t be showing up with shiny toys this year. He’ll more likely bring Motorola Razrs, used video games and other unfashionable toys. but the us way is for santa to give joy during the holiday season. so maybe instead of the economy hurting during the holiday times santa will bring increased revenue and sales to stores and maybe some automobile companies( ahem GM).

Anonymous said...

Although this article, along with the movie, is quite funny, it contains many valuable economic ideas. In one sense, Santa is a monopoly. He is the only one to produce such a large variety of products and distribute them overnight to all the houses. There is no substitution for him, leaving the United States with no other option but to keep him in business. Since prices for goods has increased, the material needed to make these toys are more costly, meaning either Santa Clause has to decrease his production or fire some of his elves to gain profit (happiness from the children). With this all said, the demand for Santa’s toys will never decrease, and he IS “Too big to fail.”

Anonymous said...

Even though the world economy would never force Santa to go away, he will have to make cuts. Such cuts will include to labor (elves, reindeer) and capital (Santa's Workshop). Santa's goal is to profit to zero so reducing costs will cut wages and costs.

Anonymous said...

I agree, even if Santa isn't able to give as shiny and new toys as last year, his spirit will still be alive in all of us. Especially during these difficult times, we need to have a little Christmas Spirit.