The message from the Administration and the U.S. Treasury couldn’t be clearer: Please start spending again, America. Your economy needs you.
But we haven’t been listening. The U.S. savings rate more than quadrupled at the end of last year and that trend shows no sign of abating. Whatever it does for the economy as a whole, saving more makes a great deal of sense for cash-strapped households. What if economic disaster has really scared Americans straight, and our newfound thrift is going to stick around for a while? Will that cripple attempts to revive the economy? Or is it something to hope for in the long run?
