New movie 'an inconvenient truth' for US economy?
Documentary I.O.U.S.A. warns Americans of being 'held hostage by foreign lenders'
AMERICA, you are in big financial trouble.
10 August 2008
AMERICA, you are in big financial trouble.
That's what a private-equity billionaire, a former government accountant and a newsletter editor are trying to explain to Americans.
And what better way to do it than at the movies.
The three men are part of a new film titled I.O.U.S.A.
The 87-minute documentary attempts to show viewers the magnitude of the country's national debt, caused by the rising national deficit, the trade imbalance and the ageing population, reported The Washington Post.
Early reviewers have dubbed the film An Inconvenient Truth for the US economy.
It's not exactly summer blockbuster material. There are no flashy car chases and nothing blows up.
Except possibly, the entire economic future of the United States.
The central character is David M Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress.
Since 2005, Mr Walker has been trying to convince Americans that the nation's budget is badly overextended.
He has even been traipsing from state to state on a 'fiscal wake-up tour', but nobody wants to listen.
QUIT HIS JOB
In March, Mr Walker resigned from the GAO so he could be even more vocal on the debt crisis.
He wants to tell Americans this: You've been told that the national deficit is US$9.6 trillion ($13.4 trillion) and rising. But it's actually worse.
The real figure is US$53 trillion.
In the movie, Mr Walker cautions with grim doomsday authority: 'The debt has increased our risk of being held hostage by foreign lenders.
'Our situation is serious, and it is deteriorating with the passage of time.
'The financial condition of the US is worse than advertised.'
The documentary also bombards viewers with shocking figures.
For example, the US debt now accounts for two thirds of the gross national product.
And by 2040, the cost of supporting the ageing population will push that figure to a whopping 244 per cent. That's twice what it was after World War II.
The genesis of the film was the 2005 best-selling book, Empire Of Debt.
It was co-authored by Addison Wiggin, the executive publisher of Agora Financial, a multi-million dollar financial research firm and publishing group based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Picked by Economist magazine as one of the top 10 must-read books in 2005, the book exposes the US debt crisis and the reasons behind it.
Mr Wiggin, who is the film's executive producer, hatched the idea for turning his book into a movie when he was holed up for two days in his Vermont condo because of bad weather.
While waiting it out, he put on a six-hour documentary on the history of the global economy, titled Commanding Heights.
He ended up watching it three times.
I.O.U.S.A. also features a live discussion among Mr Walker, investor Warren Buffett and Peter Peterson, an investment banker who made Forbes' list of 400 Richest Americans in 2007 with a net worth of US$2.5 billion.
The film competed in the Documentary Competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival and received a standing ovation and critical acclaim.
POSITIVE REVIEW
Variety magazine reviewer Justin Chang praises the documentary for its 'superb packaging and timely subject matter'.
But while the film could make in-roads in raising awareness among Americans, does it actually offer any real solutions?
Instead of one particular fix, the documentary recommends a broad overhaul, such as tough budget controls and energy conservation.
To the man on the street, the message is simple: Just don't buy anything you can't afford.
Yet, not everyone agrees that the US is headed for financial disaster.
Economist Arthur Laffer, for example, argues that as long as the debt level stays where it is, it can be financed down over time, like a homeowner with a mortgage.
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