Interview: The fate of pandemic-era personal savings with Omar Barbiero
Personal excess savings in the U.S. reached extraordinarily high levels during the pandemic, peaking between $2.0 \u2013 $2.6 trillion in 2021. That\u2019s equal to 10% of the nation\u2019s gross domestic product. Economists believe these savings helped keep the economy moving during post-pandemic inflation because consumers could use that money to keep spending.
But there\u2019s wide disagreement about how much of these excess savings is left \u2013 and what happens when it\u2019s gone. In this episode of Six Hundred Atlantic, Boston Fed economist Omar Barbiero discusses why excess savings matter, why estimates vary widely, and what surprised him when he studied how fast savings were being depleted across income groups.