That 2008 tax rebate that the government sent you? How many of you spent it? 30%, says BLS. 49% used it to pay off debt and 18% saved it. Business Insider has a nice graphic showing the breakdown between different types of households. I wrote in March about consumption smoothing. I actually called 2/3 save, 1/3 spend back in January 2008 just from watching a video (no longer available).

As that link shows, most economists expected just what happened, across the political spectrum. You should listen to us once in awhile.

Labels: economics