Savings rate plunges, but local deposits continue to rise

It keeps dropping and dropping and dropping.

Like the Energizer Bunny beating on his little bass drum, the idea of putting money into savings accounts is getting more and more unpopular among Americans.

Compare it with the late 1970s and early ’80s. Economists were decrying the savings rate of Americans even then, said Alan Garner, assistant vice president and economist for the Federal Reserve Bank branch in Kansas City, Mo. “They (economists) said it was awful, that it was terrible,” Garner said, before laughing. “It looks pretty good now.”

What was the savings rate that they were all upset about? Ten percent.

(The savings…