Americans have holstered their credit cards. Last year they went from saving virtu-ally none of their income tornsocking away 4%. Scary, because the four-point increase came straight out of the economy's hide. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the $14 trillion gross domestic product.rnBut maybe bearish economists are counting consumers out too quickly. Doom-and-gloom folks like Nouriel Roubini and Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg insist the U.S. consumer, scared by high unemployment and shrinking assets, will not return to lead the economy out of recession (FORBES, Oct. 13,2008). Roubinis New York City firm, RGE Monitor, projects that the savings rate will shoot from 4% to at least 7% this year and keep climbing quickly to 10%, well above the 7.5% long-term savings average since 1929.
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