I must wonder how much of this year’s deposit shortfall is just people having to use their savings to pay their bills.

The rich might be able to take out their savings and buy more profitable investments, but the poor can’t and most people are poor.

I suppose if it was poor people spending more of their deposits, the banks’ deposits would stay the same because the poor simply transfer their money to the accounts of the rich, so maybe deposits being down really is mostly rich people moving their money around.