1. A spouse that not only consented to letting me pursue my dreams, but went along with the sixty percent reduction in living standards without ever making me feel bad about it.

2. My son.

3. That my better half who knows me well enough to know that I would love these excellent t-shirts from the Mises Institute for Christmas. I would have been ecstatic with any of the six, but she knows me well enough to choose the excellent Hayek and Rothbard ones.

4. My in-laws, who undertook considerable effort and expense to watch my son during finals week when my wife was traveling so I could finish out the semester strong.

5. The opportunity to work under Russ Sobel.

6. Mike Munger, for writing this little piece on publishing your work (see also here). It serves as a constant reminder for me of the approach I want to take with research and is directly responsible for a journal acceptance I received last week. His advice ranks right behind James Buchanan’s “keep the ass to the chair” in terms of important advice for any aspiring academic. So far I think I’m following the advice pretty well – six conference presentations of which four have been published and two are currently under review.

7. Our wonderful department chair, for his tremendous support for graduate student conference presentations. To have a chairman who will support multiple conference presentations from a second-year student is amazing and is but one of the many reasons I have never regretted my decision to come to West Virginia.

8. My fellow students (especially MG) because what they say about learning more from your fellow students than from your classes is pretty on the mark.

9. The Earhart Foundation and the Institute for Humane Studies for their fellowships. I would never have been able to write five papers this semester if I had to be a teaching assistant.

10. Glenfiddich (and great friends to drink it with).