Economics focus

摘要

The profligacy of American households is legendary: their eagerness to spend and spend has been the main motor of the American economy in recent years. The Japanese, in contrast, are renowned for their thrift. It is often claimed that one reason for the country's economic stagnation is that consumers, fearful of deflation and unemployment, insist on keeping their wallets firmly shut. Yet it is a myth. Although in the early 1980s Japanese households were among the world's champion savers, they are so no longer. Indeed, their saving rate is now roughly the same as that of spendthrift Americans.