The great Black Friday swindle

The Black Friday retail sales blitz has become an omnipresent fixture of American popular culture, its intensity and scale seemingly ratcheted up with every annual cycle. And tens of millions of us have been caught up in the madness. Around 38 percent of Americans plan to participate this year, per a Reuters poll. Unfortunately for all of us, Black Friday is an elaborate con job. Black Friday's rise as a cultural phenomenon came with a lot of ugly hand-wringing. There are news...