Word: thrifts
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...seem to be starting to rediscover thrift. Debt levels are falling. Consumer spending is down. The savings rate is on the rise. Great, right? Not exactly. The sudden sobering up of the American consumer happens to be the No. 1 force driving the U.S. and global economies downward. We're saving more, yet we're all getting poorer...
This is what some economists call the paradox of thrift. The notion is generally credited to Englishman John Maynard Keynes--seemingly the source of every important economic idea these days--although he doesn't appear to have actually used the phrase. Paul McCulley, an economist and portfolio manager at bond giant Pimco, defines it like this: "If we all individually cut our spending in an attempt to increase individual savings, then our collective savings will paradoxically fall because one person's spending is another's income--the fountain from which savings flow." (See the top 10 financial collapses...
This kind of behavior, contends McCulley, is what the paradox of thrift demands. "Uncle Sam has got to go the other direction and lever up his balance sheet and actually spend money," he says. Simply standing by and letting the downward economic spiral worsen strikes him as "inconsistent with a civilized society...
...down at least part of its debt. "Some of the painful adjustments that are taking place are not avoidable," says David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a New York City think tank that for the past few years has made an obsession of thrift. "Wringing debt out of our economy at every level is a painful and inevitable process, and it isn't going to be solved by charging more things at the supermarket...
...right. Virtually all economists agree that there is no paradox of thrift in the long run. Saving stimulates investment. Careful stewardship of resources brings prosperity. Frugality is its own reward. Just not right this second...