"Early reviewers have dubbed I.O.U.S.A. An Inconvenient Truth for the economy." --The Washington Post "The next president better take this seriously, or I fear that we'll be in a much worse situation than a recession." --David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States 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 Armed with these interviews, historical references, and damning statistics, the book takes a lively and entertaining romp through the four deficits the nation faces: the budget deficit, the personal savings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.

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.

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.