The Great Shopping Spree, R.I.P.(Robert J. Samuelson; JUDGMENT CALLS)

Byline: Robert J. Samuelson

For two decades, it's been driven by rising debt levels. At the end of 2007, household borrowing was a dizzying $14 trillion.

Transfixed by turmoil in the financial markets, we may be missing the year's biggest economic story: the end of the Great American Shopping Spree. For the past quarter century, Americans have gone on an unprecedented consumption binge--for cars, TVs, longer vacations and just about anything. The consequences have been profound for both the United States and the rest of the world, and the passage to something different and unknown may not be an improvement.

It was the ever-expanding stream of consumer spending that pulled the U.S. economy forward and, to a lesser extent, did the same for the global economy (the reason: imports satisfied much of Americans' frenzied buying). How big was the consumption shove? Consider. In 1980, Americans spent …