and keep watching, geoffrey stone, peter swire, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you.ifill: two shopping days left 'til christmas and now paul solman tells us maybe gift giving is not all it's cracked up to be. paul's alternate-- perhaps grinch-like-- view is part of his continuing coverage "making sense" of financial news. ♪ it's beginning to look a lot like countries ma ♪ ♪ everywhere you go ♪. >> reporter: the mall outside minneapolis, setting for our annual holiday shopping story. but this year it's not about consumer confidence or retail profits, or the old reliable crass commercialization of christmas. this year we bring you the dismal science of economics at its grinchiest. >> we're spending $70 billion a year in the u.s., and probably twice that much around the world, yet much of that spending says university of minnesota economist joel waldfoggle is pure waste. >> are we in the u.s. getting $70 billion worth of satz fraction out of the items that we're choosing for others. my answer is no. >> reporter: he is the author of scrooge-enomics, why you shouldn't buy