Note: This is a mid-week update!
At our Divas group in San Francisco this week we talked about responsibility on a number of levels in light of the economic crisis—who is responsible for the mess? People at the top who took profits and ignored the house of sand? People at the bottom who took loans they couldn't afford? People in the middle?
It was an interesting and appropriate discussion in light of Wednesday's public grilling (flogging) of the eight bank executives that took TARP money and the agreement reached on the stimulus bill. What are our individual roles in stimulating the economy, we asked? Since none of us (fortunately) have lost our jobs, should we be going out for dinner? Should we be hiring a babysitter? Or should we be saving for what might happen?
New York Times columnist David Leonhardt tried to answer this question on Wednesday, saying the dilemma is one economist John Keynes would have called the " the paradox of thrift." Just when you want people spending to help keep people employed and keep the economy churning, people rein it in. The national savings rate spiked to 3.6% in December after hovering around one percent for a few years (see NYT chart).
Join the discussion! Where and how are you cutting back? Is it more important right now to focus on individual or collective responsibility?
