Christmas in November

Back when I lived in Utah, Christmas was in July, and that didn't have anything to do with Mormons. If I remember correctly, it was a big sports and outdoors store that ran a huge sale that month. According to the sales pitch, everyone would go home happy, laden with gifts and full of joy. I'm not sure how much I benefited from these commercial opportunities, but the term has burned itself into my cerebral cortex. Whenever I get goodies, it's Christmas for me.

November has almost run its course. It's miserable outside, but the lights have been turned on. The flicking of the switch is a big thing here in the U.K. where opulent street parties are held to mark the occasion, be it just around the corner in Regent Street or as far away as Blackpool. Christmastime is upon us, but it's not a given that people are in a particularly generous mood and ready to rush out and part with their money. The somber mood of economic darkness has engulfed England. It's amazing how fast irrational exuberance has tipped to irrational despondence.

At the beginning of the week, the government acted. A multi-billion-pound economic stimulus package was passed. Much of the detail passed me by and probably doesn't concern me, but one measure caught my attention. From December, VAT will be decreased from 17.5% to 15% – in order to make people go out and spend the economy out of recession, never mind exorbitant levels of personal debt and tighter conditions for refinancing. Even if the financial situation of the public were healthier, such a move wouldn't make sense in my opinion.

I have experienced three successive VAT increases in Germany and seen the rate rise from 14% to 19%. Each time, the immediate effect was nil. Stores were afraid of losing customers and passed the increases on with much delay only. Plus their prices had been calculated by some algorithm in the marketing department well in advance. Changing all the numbers would presumably have been costly. Now, with a change in the opposite direction, I'm afraid we're going to see the same effect. Prices might decrease with time, but at the beginning, they'll stay the same. Shops will pocket the difference. They won't complain either – in tough economic times like these.

This morning, I went online to buy a new lens for my camera. Somehow it didn't occur to me to wait a few days to save a handful of pounds. I guess I'm not too financially astute. Luckily, right before taking my shopping basket to the check-out, the friendly folks at Amazon reminded me to enter a promotional code to benefit from the lower VAT even before it's law. This is clearly a ploy to get people to spend their money now. My cynicism makes me predict that the lens and all other merchandise on Amazon will revert back to their original prices once people don't need to be reminded that they can save money, in December when they take it for granted. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that Santa Claus came early this year and I got a nice gift for my tree.