Americans Have Reached the Non-Savings Point

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

In 2005, the national savings rate was a negative 0.4 percent. In the first quarter of 2006, it was negative 0.7 percent. In 1933, the savings rate was a negative 1.5 percent.

Personal savings peaked in World War II, when many households had a woman in a factory and a man at the front, and wartime rationing left little to buy. It has been on a downward slide since 1984, when the rate was 10.8 percent.

We'd bet that a world without Fannie Mae or government guaranteed student loans would change debt levels for the better.