Personal saving rate under Richard Nixon

The share of after-tax income households do not spend.

Over 1969-01-20 to 1974-08-08, measured in Percent:

Term average

12.7 Percent

At the start

9.87 Percent

At the end

12.57 Percent

Change

+2.7 Percent

Low

9.7 Percent (1969-02-01)

High

14.8 Percent (1973-12-01)

Coverage

100% (67 observations)

Reading this series over a presidential term

Being a residual makes it jumpy and prone to revision, and it responds sharply to one-off events: stimulus payments push it to levels that say more about the transfer than about household habits.

It is not the money in anyone’s bank account. Capital gains do not count as income here, so a household growing richer through asset prices can show no saving at all, and the aggregate rate hides who is saving.

These are the observed values over the window above, and nothing more. This site does not say which direction is better, and none of this is a claim that Richard Nixon caused the number to move.

What Personal saving rate measures · Richard Nixon: the whole record · Chart it · Compare with another president · The source at FRED