NEW YORK – Americans have stopped saving for a rainy day.

Spendthrift nation
By Alexandra Marks and Ron Scherer

Instead, they are living paycheck to paycheck, depending on credit cards to get them through emergencies, and hoping that the rising value of their homes will give them a retirement nest egg. This personal economic chasm is showing up in the national savings rate, which has been declining for years. Tuesday, the Commerce Department reportedSpendthrift that the personal savings rate fell to zero in June, the lowest since a one-month buying binge in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The United States is on track to record a savings rate for the year below 1 percent, which would be the lowest since the depths of the Great Depression, when the rate turned negative.