Chart: Wild consumer $$ boom

(chart WSJ, plus character edits)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

• U.S. Economy last quarter grew by an astounding 4.9%!
• Driven mostly by consumer spending (+4%)
• Consumers spent wildly despite inflation, a sluggish stock market, slowing business trends.
• To pay for this spending binge, Americans emptied out their savings accounts (savings rate fell to a very low 3.8%)
• This is true in Oregon as bank deposits fell at the steepest rate (-9.5%) in a decade in 2022.
• Consumers also went wild on their credit cards (retail credit cards APR hit record high of nearly 29%)
• Consumer debt and loans hit the $1 trillion mark this summer.
• Of the 1.7 million new jobs, nearly 1 in 4 were government jobs.   These jobs were paid in part by the trillions spent in the Federal government $$ binge (Inflation Act, Infrastructure Act, CHIPS Act, etc.) that flooded Federal and State coffers.  Now that trillions in borrowing/printed cash is gone, taxpayers are left with the bill to pay off the trillions spent and at the same time the flood of new permanent government jobs it went to pay for.
• The federal budget deficit totaled $2.0 trillion over the past 12 months.

There is only so much more that both consumers and the Federal government can continue to spend on credit.

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