Dejavu all over again.....Recovery Drags as Americans Dip Into Savings

[marmar]

via truthdig:



Recovery Drags as Americans Dip Into Savings
Posted on Jan 17, 2012


For obvious reasons, Americans’ savings accounts are shrinking during this ongoing recession, both because there’s not as much money to deposit and many more reasons to make withdrawals. This has consequences for the economy’s long-term recovery prospects, as does another currently popular method of payment: the credit card. —KA

Reuters via Google News:

American households “have been spending recently in a way that did not seem in line with income growth. So somehow they’ve been doing that through perhaps additional credit card usage,” Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Friday.

“If they saw future income and employment increasing strongly then that would be reasonable. But I don’t see that. So I’ve been puzzled by this,” he said.

After a few years of relative frugality, the amount of money that Americans are saving has fallen back to its lowest level since December 2007 when the recession began. The personal saving rate dipped in November to 3.5 percent, down from 5.1 percent a year earlier, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

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http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/recovery_drags_as_americans_dip_into_savings_20120117/

[DJ13]

1. I think this is a matter of

people put off needed purchases (appliances, etc) waiting for the promised economic recovery that never filtered down from the 1% (who ARE recovered).

Raises havent happened, jobs are still non existent, and despite the proclamations of the government, the cost of living has risen.

Now they had no choice but to use their remaining resources to try and maintain a semblance of their former normal lives.

Unless wages increase and jobs return (and prices stabilize) this wont end well.

[izquierdista]

2. And after those savings are in the bank accounts of the 1%??

What next? Sell plasma? Dumpster dive? What more can we do to keep the money flowing to the top?