Low Savings, High Bankruptcies

Haggai 1:6 prophesies that Americans will earn “wages to put into a bag with holes.” In fulfillment of that prophecy, American savings today are at record lows and personal bankruptcies are at record highs.

The personal savings rate of Americans has dipped to 0.2 percent, meaning only two-tenths of one percent of income goes into savings—the lowest rate since the government began tracking savings on a monthly basis in 1959.

At the same time that savings have fallen, 1.4 million Americans filed personal bankruptcy in 1997; almost 40 percent higher than in 1996 and over twice the total for 1990.