The paper by Steindel examines the impact on saving decisions of the expected future debt growth in the USA arising from the increase in pension and health spending. After having considered the long-term outlook of the main social programmes, pointing to the expected strains, the paper evaluates...

The steep drop in the U.S. personal saving rate over the last decade has fueled speculation that Americans are spending recklessly. But alternative measures of personal saving show that households are actually setting aside a larger share of their resources than the official figures suggest. In...