Economists alarmed by the twenty-year decline in Americans’ personal saving rates need to explain the rise of U.S. living standards and stock market indexes during this period. When alternative measures of savings are considered, low personal saving rates hardly seem perplexing or troubling.

Robert L. Formaini is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and former Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Richard B. McKenzie is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and the Walter B. Gerken Professor of Enterprise and Society in the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.
Banking and FinanceEconomy
Other Independent Review articles by Robert L. Formaini
Fall 2007 Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist
Winter 1998/99 Rational Risk Policy
Other Independent Review articles by Richard B. McKenzie
Fall 1998 Is Microsoft a Monopolist?