I'm correcting an error in my last post.

I wrote,

>I agree that household purchases should be considered savings (although not an explanation for savings rates). I also agree that the differences in savings are probably not as large as previously thought. I received a private e-mail which notified me of a paper by David Campbell. I was told that according to his paper, savings rates in the US and Japan were about the same. I wondered how he would explain the current account deficit the US has with Japan with identical household savings rates. I know that the current account defecit is also influenced by government and business savings, but from papers such as "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?" by Robert Barro, we know there are possible links between government spending and household savings.

I have since been informed by someone with the paper that what I was told was not correct (or at least different from what I've been told by this new source).
According to this new source, Campbell still finds large differences in savings rates even after taking into account accounting differences in the US and Japan.

My apologies to David Campbell if I have misrepresented his work.

Anthony Miyake