100 South Mill Avenue

Taken together, these two stories tell us we ought to be much happier this year than before. What could be wrong with this logic? And wait for that new federal gas tax–then we will really be bursting with joy:

Wine drinkers got more pleasure from varieties they were told cost more
By DENISE GELLENE
Los Angeles Times

When it comes to wine tasting, pleasure is in the price.[P]eople given two identical red wines got more pleasure from tasting the one they were told cost more.

The study [.]demonstrated for the first time how marketing tactics, such as raising the price of a product, can cause the brain to play tricks on itself.
Researchers [a]sked 20 volunteers to rank their enjoyment of small sips of five differently priced[...]wines while a [.]machine monitored the brain response.
Unbeknown to volunteers, two sets of wine samples were identical — the $5 and $45 wines ($5 actual price) and the $10 and $90 wines ($90 actual price). The fifth wine was identified by its actual $35 price.
Volunteers were asked to rank the pleasantness of the wines. They liked the $90 wine best and the $5 wine least.
Brain scans showed that activity in the part of the brain that detects pleasure also moved in lock-step with price.
[...]the greatest activity when volunteers drank the wine marked $90 and the least activity when they sipped the wine priced at $5. [...]
By manipulating prices, “we can change how wine tastes without changing the wine,” Rangel said. [...]
[...]
Pain is next on the testing list

Wholesale Prices in 2007 at Fastest Pace in 26 Year; Retail Sales Weak, Inventories Stack Up

Tuesday January 15, 10:14 am ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale inflation last year shot up by the largest amount in 26 years while retailers suffered their worst December shopping season in five years as mounting economic woes caused consumers to put away their wallets.

Meanwhile, retail sales fell by 0.4 percent in December, the worst showing in six months, the Commerce Department reported. Consumer confidence has plunged, reflecting the worsening housing slump and a lingering credit crisis.