[x5452]

Interestingly do you consider your car to be savings?

[conservative physics]

A car is a depreciating asset... and although VERY necessary is one of the worst investments a person can make... BUT it does have a set value at any one point in time and assuming you owe less than it's worth, it is an asset you could sell to come up with needed cash, but I wouldn't consider it a form of savings since in almost all cases it's a loosing investment.

[conservative physics]

The way I see it, there are only two ways to interpret the data that America's savings rate is near an all time low:

1. That Americans are getting poorer (based on this data) or are somehow worse off than they've ever been. If this is your point, your wrong.

2. That Americans have changed the way they save and now have an extremely high amount of their net worth in non-liquid assets, which by their very nature tend to be more risky than cash in the bank. If this is your point, you could have a point... but US tax policy, combined with low interest rates has encouraged just this kind of behavior.