The wrappings are off and the Christmas gifts stand exposed to the light of day. Did you get what you wanted? Christmas is under attack not only for materialism, not only for multicultural failure, but now also for lack of utility. Economists as ambitious as they are cagey--perhaps bored with economics in its usual confines--have become critical of the frenzy of Christmas gift-making. The gist of what they say: Christmas is a highly inefficient way of connecting consumers with goods.

That confident description of Christmas, full of boyish impudence and gleeful irreverence, tells us something about the nature of economics. It could not have been given if we as a people were not devoted to economics, more so than to what is sacred in Christmas. But still such thinking makes us decidedly uneasy.

Now, if we can look at Christmas from the standpoint of economics, why not look at economics from the standpoint of Christmas?

commonest form of slavery is slavery to money