A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco says American consumers have spent their pandemic money and now have more debt than savings. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman has the story.
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00:00Americans' pandemic savings are all spent up. That's the message from a recent report from
00:04the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Authors Hamza Abdelrahman and Luis Edgar
00:09Oliveira say that while Americans' savings grew from the beginning of 2020 up to August of 2021,
00:14presumably due to pandemic relief programs, they've now dwindled to the point of being
00:18outweighed by debt. This isn't necessarily cause for economic alarm. The report says that consumer
00:24spending has remained strong. But there is cause for concern. Macromaven's founder Stephanie
00:29Pomboy claimed on Fox Business Tuesday that we've gotten a whole slew of data just in the last week
00:34that suggests consumers have really hit the wall at this point. And CNN quotes Chicago Federal
00:39Reserve President Austin Coolsby as saying that while consumer debt isn't yet worryingly high,
00:44a rise in delinquency would be a warning sign of larger problems. Abdelrahman and Oliveira were
00:49cautiously optimistic, saying the drop in savings is unlikely to result in American households
00:53sharply cutting their spending levels as long as they are able to support their consumption
00:57habits through continuous employment or wage gains, other forms of wealth and higher debt.