Table of Contents

Foreword.

I.O.U.S.A. Cast of Characters.

Acknowledgments.

Part One: The Mission.

The Mission.

Chapter 1 The Real State of the Union.

Chapter 2 The Budget Deficit.

Chapter 3 The Savings Deficit.

Chapter 4 The Trade Deficit.

Chapter 5 The Leadership Deficit

Epilogue.

Part Two: The Interviews.

The Interviews.

Alice Rivlin.

William Bonner.

Robert Rubin.

Peter G. Peterson.

Ron Paul.

Paul A. Volcker.

Dr. Alan Greenspan.

Warren Buffett.

James Areddy.

Paul O’Neill.

Arthur Laffer.

Steve Forbes.

Additional Resources.

Index.

About the Author

Addison Wiggin is the Executive Publisher of Agora Financial, an investment research firm based in Baltimore, Maryland. Agora publishes The Daily Reckoning, a financial newsletter with more than 500,000 readers in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, and is translated daily into French, German, and Spanish (www.dailyreckoning.com). It has received praise from mainstream publications, including Money, New York Times Magazine, and MarketWatch.com. Mr. Wiggin is the coauthor with Bill Bonner of the international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt, and author of The Demise of the Dollar . . . And Why It's Even Better for Your Investments. He is also the Executive Producer and a writer of the feature-length documentary film I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Kate Incontrera is the Managing Editor of The Daily Reckoning. Ms. Incontrera was also an associate producer and writer on the critically acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A. Before joining Agora Financial in 2004, Ms. Incontrera studied writing at the University of Cambridge and Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviews

Praise for the theatrical version of I.O.U.S.A.: "I.O.U.S.A. is a clear, cogent and compelling primer on contemporary American economics and the not-so-small matter of how we ended up at the edge of a precipice." -- Toronto Star "The buck stops here in this sobering but disarmingly irreverent look at the national debt." -- Hollywood Reporter I.O.U.S.A. | 3.5 Stars! "...it accomplishes an amazing thing. It explains the national debt, the foreign trade deficit, the decrease in personal savings, how the prime interest rate works, and the weakness of our leaders." -- Roger Ebert "An alternately amusing and alarming primer on America's off-the-charts fiscal irresponsibility." -- Variety "Equal parts enlightening and alarming, "I.O.U.S.A." highlights our unwise preference for short-term reward over long-term planning." NY Times "For anyone seeking a clearer understanding of the financial state of the union -- and strong enough to take the sobering news -- [I.O.U.S.A.] is a good place to start." LA Times "Some even wonder if it might do for the economy what Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth" did for the environment..."I.O.U.S.A" is a bold attempt to highlight a potentially huge problem." -- The Economist