Asset Building Program: Latest Articles

As the economy slows, millions of Americans will cut their budgets to stay afloat. This generates conflicting impulses: If I skip that morning coffee and granola, will my thriftiness put my local coffee shop out of business?

Will that force America's granola farmers to lay off workers? What's a budget-conscious, patriotic and hungry girl to do?

Not to worry, saving a few dollars now will not prolong the recession. And, more important, spending all your discretionary income will not end the recession.

Finland recently launched a war -- on household savings. The campaign warns Finns to lay off the piggy bank, pleading: "Don't feed the recession." The rhetoric there is quite similar to reports we've seen here from economists and Wall Street forecasters nervous at signs that U.S. consumers are starting to save.

The tanking economy is putting local governments in a double bind. As the ranks of the poor and jobless swell, authorities have dwindling funds to help them. Incredibly, officials in San Francisco and other cities can't even prioritize who to help because they don't know who their poorest citizens are. The problem lies with an obsolete federal measure of poverty that will only make hard times harder in San Francisco until it's changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded just such a revolution in New York City, allowing… more