Americans' personal savings rate dipped to 0.2 percent in June, the lowest level since the government began tracking savings on a monthly basis in 1959, officials said Monday. And newly revised annual figures, which go back further, are abysmal as well. Not since the nation was in the Great Depression during the 1930s has the savings rate been lower. But these aren't depression times. Far from it.
Jobs are plentiful, and incomes are rising.
Despite the U.S. economy's current superior performance, economists insist that savings do matter to a nation's economic health. It is from this pool of money that businesses borrow to make the investments in new factories and equipment that boost productivity. Pa. But a large pool of savings is not all that's needed. The money must also be invested wisely. And that is where Japan and other Asian nations have gone wrong, analysts say.