With French economic policy in disarray, local leaders are doing what they can writes Jason Karaian:

• In an annual tradition, the mayor of Paris lights the city’s Christmas lights to signal the start of the holiday season.
• This year the lights are being lit earlier than usual in the hopes that it will put shoppers in a high spending festive mood, thus providing an economic boost.
• In an indication of just how desperate times are in France, the last time that the lights were turned on this early was during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
• The mayor’s office, for its part, suggests that the lights are being turned on earlier than usual merely due to other scheduling conflicts.

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Source: Quartz