As regards personal saving, it is trending down. Presumably the rising stock market explains some of this trend, but explaining a phenomenon is different from applauding it. There does seem to be a personal saving deficiency, especially for households with low incomes but perhaps even for some upper-income households. As the baby boom generation moves inexorably towards retirement, many families may be looking at potentially large declines in their standard of living, declines that might have been averted had the level of personal saving been higher. Household debt statistics reinforce this picture.
Most families seem to be doing fine, but a great many are still declaring bankruptcy.
As with many macroeconomic issues, it is difficult to generalize. There is some good news and some bad news. Perhaps we should say that while there is not cause for alarm, there are grounds for concern. 1 Percentage of families holding a positive amount of financial assets. 2 Median value of holdings for families holding some financial assets.