To: Ilaine who wrote (81644 ) 10/24/2011 6:12:16 AM From: Snowshoe Read Replies (1) | Respond to >>With good and careful planning, Americans can easily eat very well for $5 per meal for a family of four. I have a client who feeds a family of 3 on $150 per month, all home cooked meals, no restaurant food, and most decisively, no fast food.<<Spenders Become Savers, Hurting Recovery online.wsj.com During the Great Depression, economist John Maynard Keynes warned of a so-called paradox of thrift : When everyone turns frugal, everyone suffers. Synchronized thrift slows the economy, according to Keynes, which hobbles income growth and makes people even stingier in a pernicious cycle. Some experts worry that is happening now. Since the recession ended in mid-2009, the U.S. economy has expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, far slower than the average growth of 4.3% during the first two years of the previous four recoveries. "Folks aren't borrowing," said Jim Ernest, executive vice president at Provident Credit Union in Redwood Shores, Calif. "They are paying down debt and continuing to save." Since January, 12% of the credit union's mortgage customers have made at least $1,500 in extra payments. Nearly 300 borrowers have made at least $1,000 in additional payments on car loans from Provident, said Mr. Ernest, who confessed he sometimes can't sleep—Provident's loan portfolio has shrunk by a quarter since the end of 2008. The change in attitude stretches far beyond Mr. Ernest's credit-union members: two-thirds of Americans polled online in July by U.K. research firm Absolute Strategy Research said they planned to either reduce their debt within a year or stop borrowing altogether.
