I think, out of necessity, a lot of Americans are saving now because the job situation is still so shaky. Either they're unemployed or perhaps their job is on the line. And so they're putting a lot of money into a nest egg, or as much as they can, week to week, month to month, as a bulwark against future upset in the economy. -Monica Crowley

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WOMAN: (From videotape.) It's been hard. Right now I'm unemployed.

MAN: (From videotape.) Jobs are a little scarce -- not a little. They're a lot scarce.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Oddly, the more Americans spend and the less they save makes the economy better. Almost three-quarters of our GDP, 70 percent, comes from consumer spending. The American consumer is the engine of global trade. From Beijing to London to Buenos Aires to Canberra, the wheels of international commerce are turned by the huge buying engine of Americans.

The nations that export to the U.S., notably China and Australia, depend on Americans first and foremost. The goods that Asia now produces and Americans demand help keep the wheels of the world's economy whirring.

But Americans are changing their habits. Ninety-three percent of Americans now say they plan to save. Seventy-five percent say they spend less now than last year. Seventy-seven percent save now. They are saving, but the result is a consumption deficit; that is, a deficit of private-sector demand. That deficit of demand kills a strong recovery, some say. Remember the fuel of the new American dream. Saving is in. Consumption is out. And that's the problem, some say.

Question: Asians are the world's biggest savers. Are Americans going to replace Asians as the world's biggest savers? Monica.

MS. CROWLEY: Not quite, John, not quite. I think, out of necessity, a lot of Americans are saving now because the job situation is still so shaky. Either they're unemployed or perhaps their job is on the line. And so they're putting a lot of money into a nest egg, or as much as they can, week to week, month to month, as a bulwark against future upset in the economy.

And in many ways, it's sort of like the Great Depression generation. That generation, my grandparents' generation, saved everything. They saved water bottles, because they were all afraid that it was going to happen.