Released: August 09, 2008

The case for a new national frugality

Source: Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)

Oil prices are plunging and the stocks in your 401(k) retirement account are rebounding. Time to fire up the SUV, head to the mall and whip out that credit card?

That’s what automakers, retailers, restaurateurs and other industries dependent on consumers are hoping, of course. They need this economic malaise to blow over quickly, and that will require Americans to get back into a good mood and open their wallets again.

But there is a school of thought out there that says many people have been permanently changed by the economic blows the nation has suffered over the last year - the unprecedented quadruple whammy of the dive in home prices, tumbling stock values, soaring energy and food prices, and the credit crunch.

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