Surprise! Christmas spending isn’t good for the economy

While for many, the holiday season is a time of joy, for some it is filled with frustrations over gift-buying for friends and family, David Kyle Johnson, author of The Myths that Stole Christmas, argues that the common wisdom that Christmas is good for the economy is wrong and that seasonal spending actually makes the economy worse by inflating the credit bubble and generating wasteful spending. He suggests it would be better – and more ‘American’ – for people to save or invest their money to encourage economic growth instead.