Households and businesses keep spending buoyant as AI investment jumps
Updated
Updated · The Wall Street Journal · May 4
Households and businesses keep spending buoyant as AI investment jumps
11 articles · Updated · The Wall Street Journal · May 4
US personal saving fell to 3.6% in March, versus a 6.2% pre-pandemic average, while first-quarter business investment posted its strongest rise in almost three years.
Consumer spending has stayed firm despite war, higher petrol prices and weak sentiment, helped by lower tax withholdings, bigger refunds and a stock market that has recovered initial war losses.
The strength is uneven: AI infrastructure spending is driving corporate outlays while most other areas are weak, leaving consumption and markets increasingly tied to confidence in one hot sector.
Is the AI boom creating true economic resilience or a fragile bubble that only benefits the wealthy?
With AI's thirst for power straining grids and raising utility bills, can the U.S. sustain its tech ambitions?
As global tensions drive up prices, are American consumers paying the ultimate cost for new geopolitical strategies?