Americans keep on spending, but how long can they go?

CEI’s Senior Economist Ryan Young was quoted in an article discussing American consumer finances.

Consumer spending is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, accounting for some 70% of total activity, meaning a slowdown would have significant impacts on growth. While economic growth has been solid through the first two quarters of the year, more of the recent gains have been driven by the artificial intelligence boom. A pullback by consumers would leave the U.S. even more reliant on AI investment to maintain positive momentum.

Despite those pressures, consumers have continued to find ways to keep up their spending.

One answer is debt,” said Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Another is that even with a tepid-looking jobs report this morning, people do have jobs, so at least they have a steady paycheck coming in for the most part.”

The U.S. added just 29,000 jobs in September and the two previous months were revised down a total of 60,000 positions. While job growth has been slow this year, unemployment has remained relatively low at 4.2% in what economists describe as a low-hire, low-fire environment.

Read the full article at the National News Desk.