Instead, the personal saving rate plunged to 1%, and the bottom 80% of Americans were spending, every year, roughly 110% of their income. Even if the financial sector were fully repaired, and even if these profligate Americans hadn’t learned a lesson about the importance of saving, their consumption would be limited to 100% of their income.
但经济在危机前就已经非常疲软；只是被房地产泡沫掩盖了。如果没有泡沫支持的消费，总需求就会出现非常大的短缺。与此相对的是个人储蓄率跌至1%，且收入较低的80%美国人每年的消费额是他们的收入的110%。即使金融部门完全恢复元气，即使这些奢华浪费的美国人不从中领悟储蓄的重要性，他们的消费也将被限制在收入的100%以内。因此任何关于消费者“归来”的言论——即使指的是去杠杆化之后——都是痴人说梦。