, Columnist
The U.S. Economy Needs to Kick Its Car Habit
The economy is living on borrowed time -- so long as it's living on so much borrowed money.
More drivers needed.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Americans love cars. It would be comforting, though, if the world's largest economy weren't quite so dependent on people buying more of them with borrowed money.
With business investment slumping and a strong dollar damping exports, consumer spending has become the primary driver of growth in the U.S. -- and hence pretty important for the rest of the world, too. Yet the latest retail sales data suggest that spending on goods would have declined significantly in July were it not for a large increase in one area: automobiles.