As the economy slowly rights itself, Americans continue to spend down their debt. During the first quarter of 2012, American households had 2.11 times as much in assets - bank deposits, stock holdings, and other assets - as they had in debt, including mortgages, credit card debt, car-payment obligations, etc, according to figures compiled by Deutsche Bank. That figure is up sharply from the figure for the fourth quarter of 2011, when it was 1.99.
That increase is the biggest jump between quarters that we've seen for that number since 1999. Such an unusual change in Americans' spending and saving habits suggest that we might be seeing the economy in the midst of making a significant turn on that issue.
Debt as a percentage of GDP has now returned to the levels it was at before the economic crisis, after reaching a peak in the first quarter of 2009. Looking at the combination of household and financial debt combined, that number as a percentage of GDP is now the lowest it's been since the fourth quarter of 2002.
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