Americans spent more than they earned in 2005
Licensed archive · Attributed source reporting
411 Brief
Americans are spending more than they are earning, pushing the national savings rate to lows not seen since the Great Depression. The Commerce Department released a report saying that personal savings fell to a negative 0.5% in 2005. This means that people spent everything they earned and more. This is the third time that the savings rate has been negative, the previous two times were both during the Great Depression in 1932 and 1933. The savings rate has been declining since 1984 when it stood at 10.8%, in 2004 it was 1.8%.
Americans are spending more than they are earning, pushing the national savings rate to lows not seen since the Great Depression. The Commerce Department released a report saying that personal savings fell to a negative 0.5% in 2005.
This means that people spent everything they earned and more. This is the third time that the savings rate has been negative, the previous two times were both during the Great Depression in 1932 and 1933. The savings rate has been declining since 1984 when it stood at 10.8%, in 2004 it was 1.8%.
Sources & reporting note
Licensed archive reporting by Wikinews contributors. Text: CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/). Original source date retained. 411 has not independently verified this archive report.
Read the source: Wikinews ↗Source published 31 Jan 2006, 05:30 am IST
