The Global Savings Glut
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7613508/site/newsweek/
The common view that our low savings rate and big budget deficit cause
our trade imbalances is mostly wrong. They are only loosely connected.
By Robert J. Samuelson
Contributing Editor
Newsweek
We are all taught that saving is good-indeed, Americans are often
chided for spending too much and saving too little. But what if the
problem of today's global economy is that people elsewhere, in Europe,
Asia and Latin America, are saving too much and spending too little?
Former Princeton University economist Ben Bernanke argues that this is
precisely the case. He calls it "the global savings glut." The power of
a good idea is that it dispels common confusions. Bernanke's global
savings glut is just such a notion. It helps explain (a) the huge U.S.
trade deficits; (b) the weakness of the current economic recovery (now
three and a half years old), and (c) the difficulty of doing anything
about (a) and (b).
Robert J. Samuelson
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/0a4273f6b87235ed
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