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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (51531)	3/11/1999 7:08:00 PM
From: Michael Bakunin	Respond to of 132070

Try the Fed. Their web sites are excellent, and will confirm the quote with which you take issue. I rather thought that that fact was common knowledge by now; the only argument I've seen against it is that if you adjust personal incomes for capital gains (mostly in real estate and the stock market), that the savings rate becomes positive again. Not high, mind you, but positive.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (51531)	3/11/1999 7:33:00 PM
From: Mike M2	Respond to of 132070

CTC, I have not investigated how the savings rate is calculated by the gov't but i think of savings as after tax income which is not spent on consumption therefore is is saved. There are some legitimate disputes about what is included and excluded but the trend over the past few decades is telling because as far as I know the methodology used to compute the savings rate has been consistent.I see much of the controversy as an attempt to rationalize excessive consumption and record low savings as a sound economy rather than a bubble economy. The various components of the money supply you mention have little relevance because the savings rate shows savings for the year in question not accumulated savings of the past. I suppose we need not worry about saving for retirement because the stock market will deliver 20% gains until the babybrats retire. -g- Mike

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (51531)	3/11/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 132070

I can't add much to what has already been said -- how you count is important. Much of folks saving is in the stock market itself. When folks precieve capital assets appreciating at a rather healthy clip as they have lately, they simply don't feel the need to save beyond the contributions they already make to these plans -- beyond these seeing the growth in value of the assets they are inclined to spend more on credit than they would otherwise -- I have seen this personally.