How long will the postwar boom last? The rosy estimates of three to five years have been based on one solid economic fact. During the war, U.S. consumers piled up $90 billion in savings, now hold $130 billion. This huge hoard, according to the economic witch-doctors, would be poured out-to fuel the boom. But last week, in a gloomy and significant report, the conservative U.S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics said "Not so."
In the June Federal Reserve Bulletin, BAE reported what it had found in a representative survey of 3,000 spending units (all the members of a family living together,...