Recent graphs have shown economic trends since 1948 in regards to our economic productivity. These graphs were spurred in part by a recent emphasis on consumer spending and saving financial markets as solutions to our current predicament. But our financial markets and consumer spending took off from the seventies up until recent events, suggesting that a focus on them might be more of a problem than a solution. In contrast, consider the following data on savings.
Savings in this graph is a catch-all, encompassing both the savings of people and the savings of government. I can tell you from other data I have looked at that both are in decline; one is not masking the other in this dataset. There is one strange outlier early on, when our savings dipped below 8% in 1949. Not being an economist with scholarship in the matter I have no explanation for that. As a whole savings appears to be something that fluctuates greatly over time, but the fluctuations have trended steadily downward since the seventies. As a scientist that studies systems I do have an explanation for that, but I do not believe that Puppet Libertarians and the Powell Cabal would listen.
Tags: Unbalanced Trends
