links for 2008-12-14

Do unemployment benefits really encourage people to duck work? Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that they do: Increases in benefits have repeatedly been linked with longer periods between jobs.

They're saving themselves millions of dollars because you can't ever return or exchange it…Returns of perfectly good, non-defective merchandise account for 95% of returns and "free engraving" is a cheap, easy way to ensure that that item won't be coming back. Back in May of this year, Sony told the Wall Street Journal that free engraving had recently saved them a million dollars.