The estimates of the effect of household capital gains on consumer spending of 3 to 5 cents on the dollar suggest that, directly and indirectly, capital gains easily account for the remainder of the measured five-year decline in the saving rate.
Obviously, this is not to say that had asset prices been flat for an extended period the personal saving rate would have been unchanged, on net, over the past five years. If asset prices had not risen, real incomes would surely have been altered, and the vast array of secondary and tertiary effects of assetprice changes would have been different.