Sunday, October 11, 2009

How Much "Cash" is Out There?

There have been a number of reports that Americans are saving more. Most recently, the U.S Department of Commers Beureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) had this to say in its Sept. 30, 2009 report.

Personal saving -- DPI less personal outlays -- was $324.1 billion in August, compared with $436.0 billion in July. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 3.0 percent in August, compared with 4.0 percent in July.

Ref:
http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp

The "bottom line"; Americans have been saving for all of 2009. A real turn around, as the personal savings rate was actually near or at zero earlier in this decade.


I also saw this in a Morningstar article. Something to think about:

"Bloomberg recently referenced data from ICI detailing money market accounts flush with a whopping $3.5 trillion. This elevated historical number comes despite a $439.5 million drop from the record highs experienced in January of this year.

From a broader perspective, if you include cash, money-market, and bank deposits, the nation's cash hoard reached $9.55 trillion in September."  (The bold text is mine).

Link to the Morningstar article:
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?postId=2714714

Link to the Bloomberg article:
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?postId=271471

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