Confucius Says, 'Be Frugal,' But the Global Slump Says, 'Spend'

My mom, a 63-year-old retired textile factory worker, is one of 1.3 billion Chinese whose lives are more or less defined by a traditional Chinese culture in which saving and frugality are rooted as deeply as anything portrayed in the Olympic opening ceremony. The 50 percent savings rate in China played a significant role in the accumulation of China's wealth and prosperity in recent decades, and has been envied by many economic experts in the United States, where the saving rate has been below 1 percent in recent years.

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