Posted on 01/31/2006 7:28:58 AM PST by tellw
This ranks up there with 'this bubble is different', and 'this is the new economy old princibles don't apply'.
Americans are overleveraged plain and simple.
Thank you for posting this - I took a big rash of crap saying this yesterday in a "We're Doomed!" thread on the bogus (or should I say flawed) report on the "negative savings rate.
Question: is home equity counted in with the savings rate? It makes up a big part of savings.
All they count toward savings are bank savings accounts. By that measure, I'd bet the George Soros dosen't save much either.
You just can't prove it?
Are you saying that the nice folks that put junk economic reports like this don't have an agenda?
You must have missed the increase in foreclosures and bankruptcies....
Somebody gets it ping.
$51 trillion net worth and we're still overleveraged? And this is after the dot-com meltdown.
i'm a great saver. save every penny i make. unfortunately, my chilean wife spends it all on shoes...
Well, if the savings rate was 10% throughout, then, with the compound returns of the last 30 years, everyone and his brother would be millionaires, and the society would collapse [who then would be driving a septic truck or flip hamburgers?]. Happily, this is not quite the case.
LOL. Maybe your Chilean wife considers those shoes an investment?
Would that, perhaps, be off-set by the record numbers in housing ownership/building...it's all about the "totality" of the information...careful or their hearsay will bite ya!
In your opinion.
You mean that spike just before the new bankruptcy laws were tightened? Yeah, that was a big surprise. LOL
Can you explain the household net worth numbers away? We have a net worth (that assets less liabilities, which includes all consumer debt, mortgages and home equity lines) of $51.1 trillion, which is more than double what it was in 1994. Only 21% of this wealth comes from homeowner equity. The average American homeowner has 57% equity in their home. That means we own a lot of liquid assets.
Would you like a link to the numbers?
It shouldn't be given the volatile nature of home values, especially at present.
Ignore the $51 trillion in household net worth. His cousin is unemployed and some guy at Home Depot told him the economy was in trouble. Don't ask him for a source, everybody knows it's true. /ignorance
Ask the average person which is greater:
(the value of their home - mortgage balance or their total credit card debt.
The fact that they consider appreciation in a house "savings" is ridiculous...and I suspect that the net asset number, if it includes home appreciation, will decrease markedly this year.
Then we will see who actually "owns" these homes....
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