Unless you live in China, you probably haven’t heard of Singles’ Day. But this peculiar phenomenon partly explains why China is careering towards a financial crisis. Think the new year sales or Black Friday, only very much bigger and very much more Chinese. A retail extravaganza that takes place every November 11, it involves 24 hours of sales and promotions accompanied by a kind of telethon encouraging youngsters to splurge. Celebrities are roped in — David and Victoria Beckham a few years ago, Mariah Carey and Miranda Kerr this time — to hawk goods on TV and parade in front of a big screen counting the total sales for the retail behemoth Alibaba.

How big a deal is it? Well, consider that in the US