I saw Christmas decorations, in July.

Most of us Americans have surely noticed that as each year passes storefronts display their Christmas fanfare earlier and earlier. Of course other holidays normally take the stage before this happens. I recall last year being mortified when Halloween candy found its way into my supermarket in the beginning of August. If memory serves, most major stores waited until at least September, if not October, to set up their tacky fake Christmas trees and jolly fat-ass Santas. Not this year, oh no.

I’m not anti-Christmas by any means. I have been known to enjoy the season with the proverbial cocktail and candy cane in hand. But that has always been when the weather has reached below 60. As it is, it hasn’t even fallen below 80. So when I walked into the perfume and makeup department to be assaulted with shiny red garland hung around the counters like bunting, I had to do a mental check that I hadn’t blacked out and missed the last three months of my life.

There atop the various counter islands were small green gnome sized trees baring silver globes with red accents. True to advertising standards since the late 90’s, there were no mangers with babies surrounded by farm animals. There were no images of Jesus. But make no mistake, this was a Christmas display.

Once the initial shock wore off and I unclenched my jaw, I let the horror of the scene filter through and I began to question why any national company would okay such a drastic raping of the yearly calendar’s fixed holiday schedule. The answer was clear immediately: People spend more money when the holidays roll around. So, why not make them think that stockings and snow are just around the corner? Perhaps the average American won’t do the simple math in their head and notice the marketing ploy at their feet? Sadly, this is probably true.

The economy sucks right now (and that is putting it mildly). Consumers are spending less because they have less. Unemployment is reaching new highs by the month. Health care doesn’t seem to be making any progress, and gay rights are seemingly becoming fewer and fewer. Yet economists tell us that we have to be good American consumers. We have to spend in order to see change. Spending creates jobs, jobs create income and therefore could lead to things like basic human rights or even the ability to pay your hospital bill when it comes due (and it will). But here is the rub: spending what we don’t have is where we went wrong to begin with.

I guess that is the real reason I’m fuming over this Christmas marketing ploy. It’s a form of mental warfare. It’s a subliminal attempt to trick the lower and middle classes into spending cash and credit they don’t have and shouldn’t be using on frivolous expenses. I, myself, was a little leery of spending any of my money on such things. I pity anyone who falls for this deceitful marketing ploy because it will backfire when it counts the most.

Consider the possibility that a low-earning family sees the covert decorations and falls for the effects. They get into a cheery mood and start noticing all of the little pretties around the store. Money is low, jobs are perilously dangling, but hey, as long as there is money for food, gas and water, surely what meager amount is left over can be used to keep the smiles on everyone’s beaming little faces. Just buy something; it’ll make all your troubles go away. Don’t have the cash? Charge it! It isn’t like you will see it on your statement until the next month.

But what if you get a flat tire? What if a pipe bursts? What if someone gets sick and needs medication? The visit to the doctor alone will drain your account of at least $100, with or without insurance. Americans have been trained to follow the instant-gratification rule. Why wait when you can have it now? It looks like Christmas in the store. So, why not indulge in a little Christmas joy right here, right now?

If one sits and thinks about the state of American consumerism for long enough, it can suck the living magic out of Christmas. Luckily, in the past, that magic has been contained to a small part of the year. That is what made it special. It was what we saved for, waited for, and hoped for. But conglomerates are stealing this magic from us with every day that they force it on us too early. Spend that money now; it won’t be there on Christmas morning. Buy little Johnny or Stacie that new toy and that amazing excitement and anticipation that comes on Christmas morning will be a little less so. The presents will be smaller, fewer.

At the end of the day, putting Christmas half a year early is in a way robbing us of the actual holiday. It’s exploitation of the worst kind. Going out and helping a major corporation’s bottom line might look good as the next round of quarterly earnings hit the market. But if the money is gone when the most important period in the American economy sneaks up on us, how will those numbers reflect the current state of our finances? Using such blatant trickery paints a very nasty color on all of us and takes away that magic in Santa’s smile. In fact, it makes it just a little bit menacing, knowing and threatening. Those little trees with shiny bobbles surrounded in glittery red garland in July are the real Nightmare Before Christmas.

The Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1st appears to have broken upon impact, not before as previously theorized. Flight AF447, an Airbus 330, crashed into the ocean killing all 228 passengers. Life jackets found at the point of impact were not inflated indicating that the passengers were caught completely off guard. The flight, which took off from Rio de Janeiro, was set to land in Paris, France. The flight was missing for six hours before air traffic controllers finally noticed its absence. From evidence at the scene it has been determined that Flight AF447 had a strong vertical acceleration and broke apart on impact. There were no recorded distress calls.

United States Vice President Biden has landed in Baghdad today. VP Biden’s three day trip was previously unannounced for unknown reasons. Biden is said to be meeting with Iraqi leaders as well as US troops and commanders in order to coordinate the Obama administration‘s plan to withdraw all troops out of Iraq by 2012. “This is a moment when we have to make sure that the Iraqis don’t take their eye off the ultimate prize,” Biden said.

CNN is reporting that North Korea has fired four short-range missiles off of its east coast Thursday. South Korea’s Defense Ministry has confirmed three out of the four launches and is expected to do the same for the last. U.S. officials warn that South Korea should cease and desist such actions which are considered borderline hostile. Intelligence reports state that no long-range missile tests are scheduled.

California’s controller office is preparing to print thousands of IOUs for the first time in 17 years. The news comes as no surprise as California’s cash is all but gone. Governor Schwarzenegger has declared a state of fiscal emergency prompting the printing of all 28,742 IOUs which are estimated to total $53.3 million dollars. Most of the IOUs are being sent to residents who are awaiting their tax refunds. The IOUs are set to print at 2 PM today.

As if increasing the violence is going to stop them. I’m not sure which side I’m talking about.

Populations of 20 Common Birds Declining

Most people would skip over an article such as this. I ask that you take two minutes to read it so that I feel accomplished today. Seriously.

N. Korea invites UN nuclear inspectors to visit

If I were a UN inspector…I’d be asking for a different assignment. No one wants to be the guy who screams Weapons of Mass Destruction again.

And for the biggest news of the day!

Disciplinary committee finds Duke prosecutor broke ethics rules

I could go on and on about this guy. He was actually willing to manipulate evidence and withhold information for his own career gain…at the risk of letting three college boys go to jail! How bad of a person can you be?!?

Keep in mind that this is just a small dose of the days news. Check the crawl and the top of the page if you want more.

News is Knowledge, Knowledge is Power

Image how the vacuum works; foreign immigrants come to America (where the population outnumbers the jobs) and overflow the market with illegal immigrants who are willing to do the work in the informal and formal markets where Americans find such jobs “beneath” them. Europe on the other hand is experiencing the opposite problem. Instead of having too many immigrants, they have too few and their population isn’t booming. In fact the average worker in EU countries is at all time high as they grow older and fewer youth arrive to replace them.

Take for instance the statistics for Germany. Over 3.8 million German workers are currently on the formal labor market, yet somehow the country is experiencing a major labor shortage that has caused 600,000 formal market jobs to be left unfilled. Engineers are in short-order, making up 48,000 of the missing workers. According to the Wall Street Journal, this led to a total of $4.6 billion dollar loss in market revenue for Germany in the past year.

Germany is the world’s largest exporter and therefore holds a special place in the global market but the loss of workers and the growing age of the population places their contribution to the global market in a questionable state. The informal market is nearly as shaky considering that German workers are ignoring over 80,000 unskilled jobs. So what options are left?

Foreign labor is certainly not in a recess in America but for Germany to hold on to its spot as the largest exporter in the world it will need to lower its restrictions. The EU made the free movement of labor a fundamental right but Germany waved that until 2009. In the meantime the country will have to make due and deal with the loss of a large part of the market share as well billions in lost revenue.

The people who could possibly fill these jobs, or as American’s would term it “steal” these jobs, are up in the air. The global market certainly has a large number of displaced and roaming workers. Britain for instance has taken into its bosom over 600,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe in order to fill a hole in the labor pool.

I personally like to think that this is a sign that American’s have an open window in countries experiencing a shortage such as Germany. American degrees hold a lot of weight and the generation that is currently completing their undergraduate degree have the worst case of wanderlust ever recorded. Perhaps the labor shortage is a sign that an international move of labor is coming, but for that to happen, Americans would have to become expatriates.

Expatriates are becoming a growing contribution to the global labor market, including Americans that leave the US in sight of a way of life that doesn’t include 40 hour work week and only two weeks of paid vacation.

EU unemployment, as the Wall Street Journal reports, is at 7.1% (the lowest its been in 15 years). At the same time the European work class is also growing older and most countries population growth isn’t anywhere near as comparable to the US. Therefore new jobs will only continue to be more and more available and outside, foreign workers are the only ones there to fill the gap. Expatriates would be well learned to take advantage of such a shortage, before the rest of the world takes notice.