I love reading economists. More fun than Harry Potter.

If you hire your neighbor for $100 to dig a hole in your backyard and then fill it up, and he hires you to do the same in his yard, the government statisticians report that things are improving. The economy has created two jobs, and the G.D.P. rises by $200. But it is unlikely that, having wasted all that time digging and filling, either of you is better off.

Well, you’re cardio-vascularly better off, aren’t you? Whatever: I think it’s safe to say there’ll be a lot of $100-hole-digging in the nation’s near future.