Two-thirds of Americans say inflation is forcing them to stop saving and dip into their reserves, a Monday Forbes survey showed.
Under the Biden administration, rising prices have caused 67 percent of Americans to take money out of their savings accounts. Americans had saved around $2.5 trillion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher consumer prices and lower wages have caused 36 percent to spend a small amount from their savings, 23 percent to substantially deplete their savings, and 8 percent to completely drain their savings.
As fears of an impending recession rise, nearly three-quarters of Americans say the Biden administration has mishandled the economic crisis. Inflation has reached a 40-year high, and gas prices have surpassed $5 for the first time in history. Some economists have attributed the rise in the cost of goods and services to the White House's $2 trillion American Rescue Plan. In June, former Obama economic adviser Steve Rattner blamed President Joe Biden's decision to greenlight stimulus spending for the inflation.
"We're all paying the price for having overstimulated this economy during the pandemic and putting too much money into people's pockets, which created a lot of this inflation," Rattner told NBC News. "There's no free lunch, and we're all going to have to pay the price."
Inflation has hit young people particularly hard. Around a quarter of Americans under the age of 42 have spent a significant portion of their saved income, according to Forbes.
The personal savings rate in April hit its lowest level since 2008, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report.