Tom Abate at the Chronicle published an article on the Commerce Department’s latest personal savings numbers for 2005. In the 1980s Americans saved an average of 9%, the 1990s 5%, and 2004 saw an annual savings rate of only 1.8%. December 2005 numbers haven’t been factored in yet, but it looks 2005 is going to end in negative territory. In other words, most Americans are saving nothing at all and spending more than they make. August 2005 (the month of Katrina) saw a national -3.4% savings rate. Monthly rates below zero occasionally happen due to natural disasters, terror, real estate and swarms of locusts. However, 2005 will be the first full year of negative savings since the Great Depression. So, for those of us that actually managed to put away some money in 2005, I advise buying gold bullion and fortifying your houses, because soon people aren’t going to be able to pay their cable bills, they are going to find out that they aren’t Paris Hilton and they are going to be pissed.