BROKEN ECONOMY: CONSUMER SPENDING THAT FUELED THE BOOM IS DEAD

• Government numbers suggest average Americans are savings 13% of their income, but the top earners skew the savings rate sharply upward.

• The lower 80% of income earners save little or nothing, spending almost all their income every month.

• Any loss of income or rise in expenses generates a shortfall for most people.

• The top earners who have capacity to spend have little need to spend more.

• Rising consumer debt levels prove average consumers aren’t saving anything like 13% of their income.

• Lower income makes paying expenses harder and makes it harder to obtain additional credit.

• Rising debt service increasingly restricts spending. 

ALL the Savings confined to the top 20 percent looking for opportunities to either put that savings to work or at least keep it safe from the inevitable erosion of the currency will lead inevitably to higher gold prices.