Savings - by Atif Mian

 "We all know what it is at a personal level: I get 100$ check and might save 20$ out of it

But what is savings in the aggregate? Say for the world as a whole? That's where it gets tricky. e.g. people talk about a "global saving glut". But can we measure it?

Not really - at least not in a direct sense The reason is that when a person (say Adam) "saves", someone else (say Eve) uses that saving, i.e. "dissaves", by borrowing it and spending it for one purpose or another So, aggregate total saving is always exactly zero!"

There is then an accounting convention that states that "savings = investment"