Consumer Spending in the U.K. Is High, Not Low

A Washington Post article on the state of the United Kingdom's economy, after it followed the path of austerity advocated by deficit hawks, implied that consumer spending there has been depressed. This is not true.

While the saving rate has risen from the lows hit at the peak of the UK's highest bubble, at 5.3 percent it is still well below the levels that the UK saw before the wealth created by its stock and housing bubbles began to drive consumption in the late 1990s. As is the case with th...