"Figures lie and liars figure"

Laurence Kotlikoff explains the national savings rate:
"... John Mitchell put his finger on economics’ labeling problem. He was Richard Nixon’s attorney general and a real expert on deception. Before being jailed for perjury, Mitchell used to say, “Figures lie and liars figure.”
The personal savings rate is one of those figures, thanks to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Physical Concepts
The right saving rate to consider is calculated by dividing total national savings by total national income. National saving is a label-free measure because it references physical concepts. It’s the value of a country’s net output minus its consumption.
The national savings rate provides an entirely different picture of America’s behavior with money. As the chart shows, national saving has, for the first time since the Great Depression, gone negative.
You read that right. Instead of adding to our seed corn, we’re eating our existing stock"
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Comment: What seems like a shock to some about the savings rate has been known for a long a time in the economics profession. Yet the so-called "top schools" have been corrupted by the lure of power. Economists joined the government and it was as if they had a secret deal among themselves about who's the best to lie. The sad part of the story  is that after some time the economists began to believe in their own lies and instead of telling their students the truth, they sold them lies and instead of making the kids brighter they made them dumber.