"A Nationwide Experiment in Consumer Irrationality, Dressed Up as a Cheerful Holiday Add-On"

"Economists typically think of consumer choice as dispassionate cost-benefit analysis by rational market actors—a bunch of people saying to themselves, 'Will having this $179.99 TV now create more pleasure than having the $179.99 in my bank account to do other things in the future?'—but the 2007 study shows that shoppers don't actually behave that way at all. In fact, they're choosing between immediate pleasure and immediate pain."

Kevin Roose at New York points out the humbug that is Black Friday.