I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt. | 
 enlarge | Authors: Addison Wiggin, Kate Incontrera
Creator: David Walker
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 266
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470222778
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.973
EAN: 9780470222775
ASIN: 0470222778
Publication Date: September 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The United States has been spending its way deeper and deeper into the red, and saddling future generations with the mess—but who's paying attention?
To answer that question, the companion book to the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A. talks with some of the most revered voices in the nation, including Warren Buffett; former Treasury Secretaries Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin; Pete Peterson, CEO of The Blackstone Group; Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas); and bestselling Empire of Debt author Bill Bonner.
Armed with these interviews, historical references, and damning statistics, the book takes a lively and entertaining romp through the four deficits the nation faces: the budget deficit, the personal savings deficit, the trade deficit—and what former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, who resigned abruptly in 2008 over Congress’s lack of action, calls the “leadership deficit” in Washington.
Defiantly non-partisan, the empowering solutions outlined in these pages are a must-read for any American who wants to help change “business-as-usual” in Washington as a new administration heads towards the Oval Office. “We the People” can get our politicians to stop spending, promote responsible economic programs, and hand our children and grandchildren the secure future they deserve.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Marketing gimmick - insipid November 15, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is padded out junk.
It's a sell out - insipid and unimaginative.
 Misses the point. November 12, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This film does a very good job at scaring people. Some of the figures and projections are bonechilling. However, it largely overstates the problem. We've handled deficits before. We ran an enormous deficit during the WW-II era (over 100% of GDP), so the current deficit (around 3% of GDP) is not a "fiscal cancer" as the IOUSA team would have you believe.
More importantly though, the film missed an opportunity to offer a real solution to the deficit problem -- health care. If our country's health care system were as efficient as the systems in other industrialized countries, and if programs like Medicare/Medicaid could take advantage of these lower costs, our deficit problem would virtually disappear. The Center for Economic and Policy Research has a nice graphic that demonstrates this well:
http://www.cepr.net/calculators/iousadeficit/calc_iousa_deficit.html
 It's About Your Children's Future November 12, 2008
If you're concerned about your children's future and you want to understand how America's debt problem will affect their ability to live in a world of opportunity and prosperity, you must read I.O.U.S.A. immediately. Inside you will travel a straight forward and very readable journey through the four major deficits that are poised to bankrupt the United States and cripple your children's future. If you've ever been unclear on how the annual deficit relates to the federal debt, or how the personal savings deficit relates to the trade deficit, you will find clear answers backed by fascinating historical accounts and an array of interviews with the top economic thinkers of our time. While this is a companion book to the movie documentary, it is very much a stand alone work and a complete read in and of itself. Of particular importance to your children's future is what the book calls the leadership deficit in Washington. This section hits at the heart of why no one in government is doing anything about this and why the current culture in Washington perpetuates the debt problem into the future. All in all an admirable and entertaining work of what many would consider a dull topic. I highly recommend it.
Numbers Do Not Lie November 12, 2008
This public awareness is needed, but is it too late?
This review is primarily about the book, not the film. But the "IOUSA" film was produced and blended with this book written by Addison Wiggin, and the overlapping information about both the book and the film is relevant to IOUSA's basic message.
With IOUSA, the information regarding the coming calamity is finally being presented to the general public on a large scale. This is no longer an esoteric issue. Very few Americans were aware of this problem, until recently. The myopic public was and is, not concerned about this. People are too busy working, raising families, paying bills, and buying consumer products. The problem is insolvency. This issue is the #1 threat to the United States.
Here is the definition of insolvency:
"When an individual or organization can no longer meet its financial obligations with its lender or lenders as debts become due." Regarding the US government, we call "debts," to be the "promised payouts" (obligations) in the coming future as entitlements payouts.
THE BIG, OPEN SECRET:
This problem has been known about for several decades. But it wasn't discussed until now, because D-Day is arriving soon. It's right around the corner. There is no way out of it. There are reasons for omitting any discussion of America's coming insolvency to the US public for the last several decades, because 1. it's real 2. it's bad, and 3. there haven't been and still aren't enough politicians willing to address this topic. Number 4, is perhaps the biggest reason: there are no viable solutions, except to start radically reducing entitlements. But this is the Third Rail....
The I.O.U.S.A. book and film were produced and put together well. Financial numbers and demographical statistics can bore readers quickly, so the general presentation is a large part of IOUSA's effectiveness in print and on film. Other reviews have noted the lack of "meat." In my opinion, more "meat" isn't needed. These are basically numbers and population demographics: basic math.
The book accurately notes the foundations of this historical dilemma. The 4 deficits the US has had and still has are one, the savings deficit (lack of personal saving, and in governmental budgets) two, the trade deficit (current account deficit) three, the federal deficit (annual deficits and total national debt) and four, the leadership deficit, noted above already. (Leaders not only not doing anything, but actually contributing to this train crash.)
There are two sections in this book. The first is presenting the information and the second is comprised of interviews of analysts and well-known financial investors. Perhaps these famous investors were included to give some credibility to the statistics, which alone by themselves, are factually correct. There's no need to corroborate the math, or the projected numbers. Nobody is challenging these numbers.
Politically, finger pointing and shallow partisanship are irrelevant as they aren't a part of the solution. The entire government and public are responsible for the creation of this mess and they - we - are responsible for enacting the potential solutions.
The message in IOUSA is in coordination with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation which distributed the documentary film that was produced. A critical person in spreading the message is David Walker, the former comptroller General of the GAO. (The nation's top accountant.) Walker and Robert Bixby went on a "fiscal wake-up tour" across the nation, in an awareness campaign for IOUSA.
This book doesn't need to lead the reader toward skepticism and negativity. It's simply the truth. The truth based on mathematics. When mathematics and statistics are compiled honestly and accurately - the numbers do not lie.
Instead of pessimism one can adjust his/her life adequately to make the life-style and financial moves necessary because of the factual information in this book. On an individual basis you cannot stop what will happen, but you can plan accordingly.
 Timely and Prescient November 11, 2008
This is a must read for anyone who is vaguely interested in the near term direction our economy and country is taking. The message is clear, interesting and easy to understand. The writing style is simple and entertaining and is a good way to reach people who have little desire to understand the big picture issues of the country. I have two issues with the book. 1)Even though the book was written a few months ago, current events have over taken it. i.e. the debt is well over $10,000,000,000,000. and 2) The editing was done very poorly. Who did they get to proof read the transcript? The poor quality of the publishing detracts from the message as it gives the reader a feeling it was written by a public high school junior.
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