A man is his bonds: The Great Gatsby and deficit spending

In the 1920s, there was a remarkable shift in the way the average consumer allocated money: savings shrank and debt blossomed. Before World War I, the average American had 6.4 percent of income in savings; by 1925, this was down to 3.8 percent (Olney 1991:48). As one historian of consumer finance puts it: “Such a sharp decline in the personal savings rate is astounding, and particularly since the 1920s were rather prosperous years and we usually expect savings rates to climb, not fall, during periods of prosperity” (ibid.:49).