-->It's really rather ironic. With zero or actually negative savings in the US, you'd think the US government would be urging consumers to start saving. But that's hardly the case. The US government, via its still-accommodative interest rates, is actually begging consumers to spend, spend, spend their crazy heads off.

I don't think I've ever seen such a frenzy on the part of retailers to induce America's consumers to spend. The newspapers I receive are thick with advertising flyers, my radio blares out an endless parade of ads, my FAX machine spews out"irresistible" mortgage deals almost daily, the pages of the dozen newspapers I read are covered with ads, my TV is reduced to ad after ad.

I can't ever remember feeling so besieged with demands to buy, buy, buy. It's almost sickening. No, let me revise that statement -- it IS sickening. The fact is that I don't need a damn thing -- just get off my back with this endless parade of -- buy, spend, and buy.

Yeah, I know, 70 percent of our Gross National Product stems from consumer buying. And if America's consumers shop 'til they drop, and they then slow down their shopping, the GDP will drop, the dollar will drop, the GDP for the rest of the world will drop -- and God knows what else will drop. The very thought of America's consumers pulling back on their consuming sends chills through the spine of every economist in the nation -- and a slow-down in spending literally terrifies the Fed.

How about this incredible fact -- according to market researcher Synovate, credit-card companies sent out an astounding 5.23 billion offers last year. This amounts to 48 credit card-offers per household.

-->12:18 EST Thursday, December 08, 2005
What: Nationwide Stop the Shopocalypse Tour. Reverend Billy and the Stop
Shopping Gospel Choir Travel 4000 miles in Two Bio-Diesel Buses,
performing at Rallies, Shows, and Retail Interventions.
Where & When: Chicago IL December 8th-9th
Minneapolis, MN December 10th-11th
Des Moines, IA December 12th
Dallas, TX December 16th-17th
Las Vegas, NV December 21st-22nd
Los Angeles December 23rd-25th

NEW YORK, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Preaching hope and redemption, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir will travel the country this month on a pilgrimage, urging consumers to celebrate the holidays by rejecting over-consumption, by avoiding big-box megastores, and by supporting local proprietors and community economies.

"When 7 of 10 Americans wish Christmas were less commercial; when, as a nation, we owe $600 Billion in credit card debt; when the average American family spends four months paying off bills from Christmas," exclaimed Reverend Billy (a.k.a. Bill Talen),"we are witnessing the Shopocalypse!

Reverend Billy and Choir members will travel close to 4000 miles on the coast-to-coast Stop the Shopocalypse Tour, delivering sinners from the deepest American vice and wickedness: love of buying and accumulating unnecessary, mass-produced goods.

Addressing throngs gathered in New York's Times Square on Black Friday this year, Reverend Billy said,"Christmas is not in a mega chain-store; it's not in a Gingerbread Latte. We've got to think outside the Big Box, children! We've got to bring this message of freedom back to our communities! We've got to bring it back into our homes and our hearts!"