Rick Pollack · I.O.U.S.A The Movie

November 10th, 2008

Update: Here is a response to IOUSA from The Center for Economic and Policy Research (from Matt Sherman)

Category: BFD

4 Responses to “I.O.U.S.A The Movie”

  1. Ed Morrison Says:
    November 11th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Thanks, Rick.

  2. Alan Smason Says:
    November 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    This little film laid out in a few short minutes the impending crisis that is looming for our children and their progeny. It is essential to the future of our nation that our elected officials get a handle on the burgeoning national debt because to do nothing is tantamount to giving up. We currently are waging wars on two fronts against terror, but the danger to our country through fiscal irresponsibility purports a greater threat. Indeed, we may find our world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.

  3. Matt Sherman Says:
    November 13th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    This movie is really good at scaring you. Some of the projections are absolutely bone-chilling. But it largely overstates the problem — the deficit is currently at a manageable level of 3% of GDP. And we need to run a deficit in this economic downturn to ensure we don’t have skyrocketing rates of unemployment. The flim also ignores one of the best solutions to the “problem” — health care reform. If our health care system were as efficient as other industrialized nations, and if Medicare/Medicaid were able to take advantage of these lower costs, then our deficit problem would basically disappear. Check out the Center for Economic and Policy Research, they have a nice graphic that demonstrates this well: http://www.cepr.net/calculators/iousadeficit/calc_iousa_deficit.html

  4. Rick Pollack Says:
    November 13th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    Thanks Matt