Mike Moffatt is trying to lose weight, and has part of his weight-loss plan he’s going to give me $100 if he doesn’t lose at least one percentage point in body fat in March. Which is nice for me: all upside, no downside. Greg Mankiw has already said he’ll donate his $100 to the National Council of Economic Education if he’s given it, while Alex Tabarrok is chivvying Mike along by promising to use the money "to squash the poor, to fight against universal health care, and to gas up our Hummer".
As for me, I didn’t choose anything clever, I just asked Mike to donate the $100 to MSF. Mike’s a graduate student; the prospect of losing $1,200 means a lot to him, and if he fails (which is quite possible, losing weight is hard) I don’t want to make him feel even worse by squashing the poor. But obviously Alex feels he has more influence over the ultimate outcome than I do.