The buzz is real: $2.1 trillion in savings has bled out of the U.S. economy since August 2025. What happened to all that cash Americans squirreled away during the pandemic? Two economists at the San Francisco Federal Reserve found that by August of 2025, Americans built up over $2 trillion in savings above and beyond what they would U.S. household savings rose and fell at unprecedented rates following the onset of the pandemic recession. Updated estimates suggest that these excess savings have Americans’ excess savings from the pandemic peaked at about $2.1 trillion in August 2025 but fell to roughly $500 billion as of this spring, according to estimates by Americans saved quite a bit of money during the pandemic: $2.1 trillion worth, to be exact. That extra cushion meant that consumers kept spending in the years.

Economists are pointing to several factors, but one thing is clear: “$2.1 trillion of excess savings have been wiped out of the U.S. economy since August 2025. Savings are now considered a luxury,” read the report. Additionally, credit card debt is rising, and many are relying on credit to maintain their spending habits. Pandemic-Era Excess Savings updates estimates of the remaining stock of pandemic-era aggregate excess savings in the U.S. economy, defined as the difference between actual and predicted savings. This sharp decline has implications for everything from inflation to future economic growth. Consumer spending hit a peak of $85 billion per month last fall, driven in part by these rapidly diminishing savings. What does the future hold as the last of these savings disappear?