If you believe some U.S. officials, the Chinese people are way too thrifty. Hoping to help bring down the soaring U.S. trade deficit with China, which rose by 15% to $232.5 billion last year, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have urged Beijing to encourage Chinese consumers to spend more (preferably on U.S. imports) and save less. It's true that a culture of financial prudence has shaped the psyche of generations of Chinese, leading to a national savings account of $2 trillion at the end of 2006. But it isn't quite fair to suggest that overly frugal...
