Americans' savings take a hit, along with their loans

Source: Wall Street Journal


Wall Street Journal's Mark Whitehouse reports on a watershed change in the nation's savings and investment behavioral trends. "Over the two years ending September 2010, Americans withdrew a net $311 billion — or about 1.4% of their disposable income — from their savings and investment accounts, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s a sharp divergence from the previous 57 years, during which they never made a net quarterly withdrawal. Rather, they added an average of 12% of disposable income to their holdings of financial assets — including bank accounts, money-market funds, stocks, bonds and other investments — each year." Hopefully, a temporary phenomenon.

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