>>We're playing word games here. If there were a real bulge in savings as
boomers prepared for retirement, it should show up in the aggregates.>

>Instead of playing word games, then, let's try singing from the same
hymnbook: Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States Annual Flows and
Outstandings, 1991-1997, page 7, table F9, "Derivation of Measures of
Personal Savings".>

A virtue, nay a purpose of the NIPA accounts
is to rise above all the double-counting that
results from the use of purely empirical,
accounting figures.  Without getting immersed
up in the Flow of Funds stuff, the inescapable
fact is that, as Doug says, NIPA savings trends
do not support the BBB(Baby Boom Bulge) theory.
Financial bubbles have an autonomous character,
relative to individual and corporate decisions
on the amount of income and receipts, respectively,
not to spend.  Searching for a bright side, one
could imagine that this separation suggests some
basis for useful, nontrivial reform via regulation.
The State can declare by fiat property titles or
financial instruments null and void by forcing
write-downs and bankruptcies.  The problem for
the sustainability of the system would thus
seem to be one of coordination in such a
process.  From this standpoint, there is not
inherent infeasibility of the survival of
capitalism forever.  That may not be good
news, but the prior question is whether it
is true.

MBS
Fabian Chowder Society



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