IT'S only the second day of Christmas but where is the cheer?

Bling, foreclosures, rising credit card debt, bank and auto bailouts, upside down mortgages and perhaps a mid-life crisis new Corvette—all symptoms of compulsive overspending.

There is fresh evidence that people spend less when paying cash than using credit, cash-equivalent scrip or gift certificates. They also spend less when they have to estimate expenses in detail.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Harvard Business School have found that it’s possible to buy happiness after all: when you spend money on others.

How you are feeling has an impact on your routine economic transactions, whether you’re aware of this effect or not.

It has long been assumed that consumers are good judges of affordability, but a new study reveals that how much you’re willing to spend is influenced by whether you think about a larger pool of resources (such as your bank account) or a smaller pool (the cash in your wallet).

The Commerce Department reported on Friday that core consumer prices went up by 0.1% as it was expected in May, which kept core inflation within the Federal Reserve’s interests.