Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009
The Rich Feel it Too
It's widely assumed that the rich will always be rich and that, far from hurting them, recessions simply offer a chance for them to buy more stuff on the cheap. Yet wealthy families are feeling this crunch too. The sharp, lasting decline in stock prices and real estate values pummeled their portfolios. "Premium" consumers who describe themselves as worse off number twice those who describe themselves as better off, according to Packaged Facts. Only two of five feel financially secure. So even people with money are pinched, which has given rise to yet another Great Recession peculiarity: the national savings rate has jumped to a 15-year high of nearly 7%; this at a time when many peoples' incomes have been crushed.