Along with “quit smoking” or “lose weight,” “save more” is consistently one of the most popular new year’s resolutions. But that’s easier said than done, especially when millions of Americans still lack access to a basic bank account.

Sheldon Garon, Princeton professor and author of Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves, argues that there are ways to change that. In addition to the new reforms and protections recommended by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the U.S. Postal Service could provide services similar to the postal banks still popular in countries with high personal savings rates–such as Belgium, France, and Germany. In the process, the USPS might also “save” itself from its well-publicized financial woes.

Professor Garon recently talked with Kiyoshi Okonogi of the Asahi Shimbun about postal savings and other possible solutions–read the full Q&A here. (See also Reid Cramer’s post at the New America Foundation’s The Ladder blog, Felix Salmon’s article at Reuters, and Tim Fernholtz’s post at GOOD.)

Gregory Mills of the Urban Institute‘s MetroTrends blog wrote up a post earlier this week about the importance of making it easier for would-be small savers to access basic financial services. He goes on to argue that the U.S. could seriously benefit from “modern-day, higher-tech equivalents” of school or postal savings banks.

Want to add your two cents to the discussion? Prof. Garon will be speaking with Marty Moss Coane on WHYY’s “Radio Times” this coming Tuesday, January 3rd–call in with your questions!

How did something so small and insignificant as a stamp change the world?

In an op-ed from the New York Times this morning, PUP author Olivier Zunz relates the origins of the Christmas Seals campaign and the birth of mass philanthropy in the United States. At a time of year when we are inundated by requests to give a little, give a lot, just give — this article takes on special meaning. Not only is the Christmas Seals story a fascinating, heartwarming history, but Olivier hints at the larger lessons we can draw from it, writing:

It might be worthwhile for all those who sympathize with the occupiers of Zuccotti Park and other plazas and squares around the country to learn from the example of the Christmas Seals campaign. We have no shortage of urgent causes that will benefit from the energy of the grass roots. The seals campaign showed that the 99 percent, even when feeling disenfranchised, are hardly powerless to repair the safety net — and even influence the actions of the 1 percent.

The seals in this post are shared from the complete 104-year gallery at the American Lung Association: http://www.christmasseals.org/galleries/1907-1919.html. It is fascinating to watch the themes and imagery of the seals shift and change over the years and now the Christmas Seal program is high tech. You can send an e-card with a Christmas Seal or post one on Facebook. If you prefer the low-tech version, you can still purchase Seals for 2011: http://www.shoplungusa.org/xmasseals/getseals.asp

If you are interested in the history of philanthropy in America, please check out Olivier Zunz’s new book Philanthropy in America: A History. We are pleased to offer a complimentary excerpt on our web site: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9513.pdf

It’s always nice to know someone who knows something about wine. With the holidays just around the corner, we decided to tap our own James Simpson, author of the recently released Creating Wine: The Emergence of a World Industry 1840-1914, for his holiday wine memories, tips, and historical expertise. He’s exactly who you’d want to have handy when you’re puzzling over whether sherry goes with turkey, or how to avoid looking like a slouch if you happen to be raising your glass in Barcelona. Enjoy:

Think Christmas, Hannukah, and New Year’s Eve are enough to celebrate in December? Here’s one more family and friends get-together to add to the list — the Christmas Bird Count. I am a new birder and this is the first year I have been aware of the CBC so I asked Richard Crossley if he would answer a few questions. Read on to learn more about the CBC and how Richard’s count went this year.

Richard will be on Science Friday this week to discuss the CBC with host Ira Flatow and a nation-wide NPR audience. Check local your local NPR affiliate for the air time and tune in.

Richard, at this time of year we start hearing about the Christmas Bird Count. What is it?
The National Audubon started the CBC in 1900 in New York (Central Park I believe). The first one for my backyard, Cape May, was only 3 years later in 1903. It sounds amazingly simple, but the goal of the program is to have tens of thousands of volunteers literally count birds around Christmas time. For many this has now become an annual family tradition spanning many generations.

Do you have a sense of how many people participate in the CBC?
Well last year there were over 2200 groups reporting in and they saw over 60 million birds according to National Audubon. This year, the counts will take place until Jan 5th. Our patch, Cape May County, did ours on Sunday. There were 62 participants and we counted 152 species. The best birds I had were Rufous Hummingbird and Bells Vireo – both lingering rarities.

Is the CBC purely a collaborative venture or do teams compete with each other to find the most species?
More available after the jump.

Wow, what a lineup! We are so proud to see Carmen Reinhart, the co-author of our New York Times bestselling classic THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, discuss economic issues on a recent New York Times Opinion talk with Times journalists Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Joe Nocera. This brilliant and entertaining program streamed live on the internet and covered today’s economic issues such as the Eurozone crisis, deleveraging, inequality, Occupy Wall Street, and space aliens. Check out the video if you want to see what great minds have to say about our economic situation and what’s coming next.

Yeah…me neither.

But John Noble Wilford of the New York Times does! Check out his article on the intersection of empires and learn about the fascinating exhibit at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World open through January 8, 2012. ISAW has a co-pub with PUP to put out the gorgeous exhibition catalog.

Impress your relatives this holiday season with your knowledge of the forgotten ruins in Syria.

Richard is still hard at work on the upcoming Western version of The Crossley ID Guide. In the meantime, enjoy his video of Colombia Tanagers and other Western species coming in to feed on bananas. Listen carefully as he IDs a young male that his companions previously thought was a female. This type of ID — using transitional plumage — is where The Crossley ID Guide is absolutely invaluable. Richard’s photo spreads include more plumages, more specimens, more of everything to make difficult IDs easier.

Also, if you are a fan of NPR’s Science Friday, tune in this week to hear Richard discuss the Christmas Bird Count.

We invite you to check out our new 2012 philosophy catalog at:
http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/phil12.pdf

You will find books by Martha C. Nussbaum, Peter Singer, Steven Nadler, John M. Cooper, Emrys Westacott, Patricia S. Churchland, Pascal Bruckner and many more. Many new paperbacks and ebooks are also available. It’s easy to download the catalog to your smartphone or tablet for browsing.

Will we see you in D.C. at the annual American Philosophical Association meeting? We’ll be there in the exhibit hall (booth no. 103). Stop by to say hello and browse new books.

Today, MIT announced “that for the first time it will offer credentials — under the name MITx — to students who complete the online version of certain courses, starting with a pilot program this spring.”

This major milestone in the open courseware movement is covered in Chronicle of Higher Ed here: http://chronicle.com/article/MIT-Will-Offer-Certificates-to/130121/. In the article, they reference PUP book Unlocking the Gates by Taylor Walsh, writing on behalf of Ithaka S+R (including colleagues Roger Schonfeld who is quoted in the AP article announcing MITx). This seminal book provides unprecedented data and analysis of several case studies including OCW at MIT.

So, to celebrate the launch of MITx we are pleased to offer this complimentary excerpt from Unlocking the Gates that includes this prescient tidbit:

Vest wrote in 2004 that “the real pay-off of what we hope will become the open-courseware movement will be its effect on educators and learners around the world.”65 The language of the original grant proposal’s sections dealing with impact reveals both MIT’s vast ambitions for OCW’s effects on the wider world and a lack of clear metrics for systematically assessing that impact. The proposal’s authors state that “we believe that in the long run, OCW, like other successful contributions to education, will lead to greater equality and improvements in economic performance, but these long-term, ultimate outcomes are impossible to isolate and measure.”

Excerpt as PDF: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/walsh-excerpt-owci.pdf

FACT: “Prior to 1980, the January ratio of excess debt relative to spending on the immediately preceding Christmas averaged about 15 percent. Since 1980 it has risen steadily to nearly 50 percent. That is, a month after Christmas, the holiday is now only halfway paid off. Of the component that was charged to credit cards in December, about three-quarters is not paid off.”

Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays
by Joel Waldfogel

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and-gift giving. Lots and lots—and lots—of gift giving. It’s hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let’s stop to consider the gifts we receive—the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get gifts we like? How many of us give gifts not knowing what recipients want? Did your cousin really look excited about that jumping alarm clock? Lively and informed, Scroogenomics illustrates how our consumer spending generates vast amounts of economic waste—to the shocking tune of eighty-five billion dollars each winter. Economist Joel Waldfogel provides solid explanations to show us why it’s time to stop the madness and think twice before buying gifts for the holidays.

By reprioritizing our gift-giving habits, Scroogenomics proves that we can still maintain the economy without gouging our wallets, and reclaim the true spirit of the holiday season.

‘Tis the season for giving—and we’re feeling very generous today! We’re hosting 2 book giveaways next week, one on our main PUP Facebook page, and the other on our Princeton Birds and Natural History Facebook page. 1 winner from each page will be selected Thursday, December 22 at noon. All you have to do is “like” our Facebook pages and you’ll be entered to win! Here are the details:

On our main PUP Facebook page, the winner will get to choose a prize from 3 of our bestsellers: On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt, Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays by Joel Waldfogel, and Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin. The choice is yours! Just be sure to “like” us by next Thursday at noon!

Over on our Princeton Birds and Natural History Facebook page, we’re giving away a copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley. This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes field guide design by providing the first real-life approach to identification. “Like” this page by Thursday at noon if you haven’t already to win!

Good luck, and Happy Holidays from Princeton University Press!

Princeton University Press author and University of Oxford criminologist Federico Varese has published an op-ed on Reuters.com’s The Great Debate blog describing his recent research trip to Myanmar and the surrounding area. He wanted to see the opium trade and its effects on the local population. His work has led to the question “Is Burma the next Mexico?” For a good read, check out Varese’s MAFIAS ON THE MOVE: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories.

From Reuters.com
Hillary Clinton had many “hard issues” to tackle during her recent visit to Myanmar. Yet there was no mention of one of the most, if not the most, difficult issue Burma faces: their lucrative drug trade.

Northern Burma is the home of the “Golden Triangle,” a hub for opium production and the location of hundreds of heroin and amphetamine refineries. So how do political leaders and the international community plan to tackle this problem in the event that Burma truly becomes a democratic country?

To read more, continue to Reuters.com.