01685cas a2200253 a 4500 AALejournalIMF014867 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781498307376 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Bakker, Bas. The Rich and the Great Recession / Bas Bakker, Joshua Felman. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2014. 1 online resource (36 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Most papers explaining the macro causes of the U.S. Great Recession focus on the behavior of the middle class: how its saving rate declined in the pre-crisis years, then surged following the crisis. This paper argues that the saving rate of the rich followed a similar pattern, the result of wealth effects associated with a boom-bust in asset prices. Indeed, the swings in saving by the rich must actually have played the most important role in the consumption boom-bust, since since the top 10 percent account for almost half of income and two-thirds of wealth. In other words, the rich played a critical role in the Great Recession. Mode of access: Internet Felman, Joshua. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2014/225 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2014/225/001.2014.issue-225-en.xml IMF e-Library