What penny-pinching baby-boomers mean for the world economy

THE WEST’S baby-boomers are the richest generation ever to have lived—but they do not spend like it. Instead, as we report this week, the elderly are squirrelling away money, motivated by ever-longer retirements, the risk that they will need to pay for old-age care, the inevitable uncertainty about how long they will survive and the desire to pass on assets to their children. Whereas in the mid-1990s Americans aged between 65 and 74 spent 10% more than their income, the same age group has been a net saver, in aggregate, since 2015. A similar picture is found across the rich world, from Canada to Japan. A generation sometimes associated with luxury cruises and Château Margaux is in fact unusually miserly.