The fastest component of the rapid GDP growth in the third quarter of 2023 was consumer spending.

Our buddy Charles Payne of Fox Business News and host of “Making Money” showed us this chart last week of the turnaround in consumer savings.

During the pandemic, you can see a big surge in savings as everything — from airlines to movie theaters to restaurants — closed down for nearly a year and folks stayed locked up at home. Then when the pandemic ended, Americans went on one of the biggest and longest spending sprees (much of it with free money from Washington) in history.

How long can the shop-till-you-drop behavior continue? If you look at the area of excess savings in 2020 that has been more than spent down by the consumer blowout in the last 30 months.