Stimulus Saving?

A few weeks back a wrote a post on my blog about how people I know are planning to spend their stimulus checks. It turns out Americans may not plan to spend it at all. Here's the latest from Bloomberg:

The stimulus plan Congress approved this month may provide less of a jolt to the U.S. economy than intended, as most Americans plan to save rather than spend their tax rebates, a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times survey shows.

Only 18 percent of respondents said they will spend their rebate on purchases, while slightly more than three in 10 said they prefer to use the money to pay off debt, and a third said they'll pocket it.

``People in Washington assume that about 40 percent of the money will be spent,'' said Douglas Elmendorf, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research organization. ``Much less would be disappointing.''

We'll have to wait and see just how stimulating this stimulus package actually is. It turns out Americans may not be as Pavlovian as we originally thought.