Buy Then; Pay Now

"We weren't always a nation of big debt and low savings: in the 1970s Americans saved almost 10 percent of their income, slightly more than in the 1960s. It was only after the Reagan deregulation that thrift gradually disappeared from the American way of life, culminating in the near-zero savings rate that prevailed on the eve of the great crisis. Household debt was only 60 percent of income when Reagan took office, about the same as it was during the Kennedy administration. By 2007 it was up to 119 percent."

Paul Krugman in The New York Times blames the Reagan administration for the decline in personal savings.

But Brink Lindsey in Reason accuses Krugman of promoting "nostalgianomics."

And Andrew Leonard in Salon points out the Democratic Party's culpability.

Robert Scheer in The Nation points to Bill Clinton.