Edward Glaeser encourages well off Americans to spend:
Cracking open the Champagne does not exactly feel in tune with today’s spirit of national austerity, but recessions get worse when prosperous people do not spend. In fact, if you can afford it, then this is exactly the moment to redo your kitchen or buy a car. Not only will you be able to get a good deal, but your spending will help revive the economy. The economist John Maynard Keynes convincingly argued 70 years ago that thrift was no virtue during a recession.
We just started a bathroom and kitchen renovation (well the ceiling did fall in over the shower) and just bought a big couch from Restoration Hardware. Does that now qualify as patriotic? Even though I still can’t be a citizen? (Despite PEPFAR’s passage last summer, the Bush administration failed to change the regulation barring HIV-positive non-Americans from visiting or immigrating to the U.S. It’s now up to the Obama administration to bring the US into the norms for all developed countries.)
The Dish 