Savings rate falls to 0%

[mcscajun]

Sheesh!

From today's MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com)

"U.S. consumer spending grew 0.8% in June, offsetting a sizable 0.5% gain in incomes, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The personal savings rate fell to 0%, the lowest since the post-9/11 consumer spending binge in October 2001 and the second-lowest since the Great Depression."

[Canuckistanian]

1. Take your money out before it goes negative!

Seriously, why the Hell would anyone keep money in a bank at 0% interest?
The banks have just become obsolete as a place to keep money.

Might do just as well to buy rare coins.

[Toots]

2. I think you misunderstand or else I do

The zero is how many people now save money not how much interest they receive.

[lynettebro440]

3. I heard they had some

for sale up in Ohio.

[pitohui]

5. banks are paying more interest than that

actually the interest rate has gone up

i wouldn't pay too much attention to scare stories

ing bank, a savings account bank, is paying 3.15%

you can easily get a checking acct paying more than 1% plus sign-up bonuses

[mcscajun]

8. This isn't about the interest rate...it's about how much Americans

are (or in this case AREN'T) saving.

[ronnykmarshall]

20. ING rocks!

[mcscajun]

7. It's not the interest rate. It's an indicator of how much we're NOT saving

as a people.

[whistle]

4. To end up with no savings after 65 years means that capitalism ...

....is imploding in this country and as an economic model is in fact a total failure and in all likelihood a fraud as far as wealth creation.

[pitohui]

9. more likely it means people don't trust the future

if they feel $$$ will lose value, no point to saving, is there

many people's savings is equity in home, it can be substantial, a home you bought in 1980 in california for $100K might be $1 million home now, when you are 65, sell it, take the money, move someplace cheaper, you had no savings acct but your equity means you end up well-to-do

[DELUSIONAL]

6. That would be the average

For every person who saves -- there is someone who can not or does not save. The very very rich and some middle class are able to save.

And I do believe that we are falling into another "Great Depression".

[wli]

10. I've got 44% of my annual salary in savings

I wonder who these people who aren't saving are.

Anyway, it's all futile anyway, since even that will be worthless when OPEC goes to the Euro.

[Lars39]

12. The people trying to eat and pay for their own medical care.

[pitohui]

25. low income people

real wages have fallen

you can't buy your home on $8 an hour and save for the future, you must make a choice, one or the other, the home is probably the wiser choice since it is today

indeed, on $8 an hour, if health care is not provided by your company, you might as well shoot yourself now, for saving just means more for your creditors to steal in the inevitable bankruptcy

[MissWaverly]

11. saving what, thanks to ever expanding taxes there's no savings

Not only has the federal taxes gone up, they undercut funding to state and local government to fund tax breaks for the rich, I am now paying a tax for flushing my toilet in Maryland, dreamed up by our Republican gov. Bob Ehrlich, whose motto is: He's so honest, it hurts and my tags
have gone from $75.00 to $125.00, I just love flat taxes that make the
poor and the middle class pay more and all this sacrifice for the top
1% who are only 30,000 people.

[Lars39]

13. OK, how in the heck does the toilet-flushing tax work?

I think I would have created a bio-hazard when that one passed.

[MissWaverly]

16. Here's how it works

The Chesapeake Bay needs cleaned up, that's a no brainer but there
are many large polluters that contribute to this, including large poultry companies, so who does Ehrlich zero in on to pay for the clean up, the residential customer, including those dirty liberals in Baltimore, so my sewage bill has gone from $19.00 to $49.00-the bill is called the flush tax since it is a tax on your sewage and every
residential customer is paying the same, which is really a burden for the seniors, the same way with tags, the bill for registration went from $75.00 to $125.00 for every driver. I agree with fixing up the roads,
but flat taxes make it hard on everybody.

PS I use the minimum so your bill would be at least that.

[Lars39]

19. Thanks for the info-

Sounds like another fine example of lobbying paying off. :grr:

[MissWaverly]

27. Exactly!

Well, I really do think we are in for a change soon, we are now in the
9th year of the reign of the Bush family.

[Career Prole]

14. Bwaaaahahahaha! Not zero! Why spread doom and gloom?

"Although it rounded down to zero, the savings rate was actually positive in June. The average American saved 53 cents in June."

http://tinyurl.com/bnk84

I've got tuppence to spend, and tuppence to lend, and half a friggin' buck to take home to me wife!
:woohoo:

[Hav]

15. Lol

I know it's nothing to laugh about but I had to..
On the other side, this seems to be one thing that is good for the economy. This just can't be healthy, though.

[Career Prole]

18. I reckon. Pensions are becoming a thing of the past

and repukes are trying to get rid of Social Security but will settle for merely spending it all.
If we aren't paid enough to put any away on our own we'll be eating a lot of tunafish-and-newspaper casseroles when we're finally too old and broken down to drag ourselves to a timeclock.

[mcscajun]

22. No: it most certainly isn't.

Once upon a time, boys and girls...the metaphor for your retirement planning ran thus: think of a three-legged stool.

One leg is Social Security, the second is your pension, the third is your own savings and investments.

So BushCo is busy trying (and thankfully not YET succeeding) to saw off the first leg, corporations are busy gnawing on the second, and we either can't or won't save and invest (even so, those who did took a big bath five years ago and haven't really recovered those losses since). We do however pile up a good deal of consumer debt.

For myself, My savings rate is about to approach negative numbers. While I was fully employed and during the last two years I was on severance, I was saving every dime I could. Now, I'm only partially employed and beginning to draw down my savings.

Fun, fun, fun in Bushworld.

[Endangered Specie]

17. What!

:wow: :crazy: :mad:

[xynthee]

21. link to story:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B76F26F50%2DDAA8%2D44EF%2D9F75%2D9FC6E542451E%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=

[ignatius 2]

23. Home equity loans are being used like ATM cards. When long term rates

rise and the housing bubble bursts, there will be Less home equity but those 2nd mortgages will still be there.

An alarming statistic I saw yesterday. Over the last 2 years, 40% of job creation was due to the growth in housing.

1st the stock market bubble which was replaced by the housing bubble. I have a bad feeling that this buble will end badly.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

24. Don't Worry....Be Happy! :-)

Drink some more Kool Aid. Buy another SUV. Borrow some more against your house. Don't pay any attention to those interest rates. We'll try and keep 'em artificially low a while longer, and it's only a couple of percent after all. Borrow! Spend!! Spend Some More!!!

[ignatius 2]

26. Mr. Greenspan, is that you?

n/t