…so now hit the pension funds:
A record-breaking number of Americans are making emergency withdrawals from their 401(k) retirement plans in order to cover a financial hardship amid the ongoing inflation crisis, according to new data from Vanguard Group.
I thought that everything was OK with the economy!
The link notes that the data only goes back as far as 2004, so no information on what happened in the recession of 2001, much less 1980 and 1982 for example. Somehow we muddled through those and came out the other side in pretty good shape.
No doubt there are people looking at their “savings” and thinking “well, I can just tap that”, not realizing they are impoverishing themselves a few years down the line - and that’s new, because prior to the establishment (and filling up of) 401k’s, people didn’t have that to look to.
People are tapping their savings which are at an all time high? Alert the media.
But whose savings are at an all time high?
The results found only 44 percent of U.S. adults had enough money saved to cover a $1,000, unplanned expense.
From time to time, I have posted graphs showing the drawdown of personal savings, and accumulation of personal debt, ever since the US went Shiny, forty years ago. Add in the accumulation of government debt, and it appears the entire “supply side economic miracle” was floated on a sea of debt.
Steve