Americans are traditionally the world’s consumers of last resort. But that’s about to change. Even when what the IMF is calling the Great Lockdown ends and we emerge from the immediate coronavirus crisis, the economic ramifications of this moment will produce a new age of US austerity.
The idea of Americans penny pinching for any prolonged period may seem unlikely, despite currently living through the sharpest downturn since the Depression. Today’s economy, after all, is built on consumption.
Since the 1980s, the US has incentivised debt over savings for both consumers and corporations, and encouraged the growth of a financial sector that has repeatedly brewed up asset bubbles to support the spending that real economic growth could not.
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