I.O.U.S.A. - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

I.O.U.S.A. is a 2008 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

directed by Patrick Creadon

Patrick Creadon

Patrick Creadon is an American documentary filmmaker, best known for the documentary film Wordplay. A profile of New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, Wordplay premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and became the second-highest grossing documentary of that year...

. The film focuses on the shape and impact of the United States national debt

United States public debt

The United States public debt is the money borrowed by the federal government of the United States at any one time through the issue of securities by the Treasury and other federal government agencies...

. The film features Robert Bixby, director of the Concord Coalition

Concord Coalition

The Concord Coalition is a political advocacy group in the United States, formed in 1992. A bipartisan organization, it was founded by former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman, former Secretary of Commerce Peter George Peterson, and the late U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas. The Concord Coalition's advocacy...

, and David Walker

David M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)

David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...

, the former U.S. Comptroller-General, as they travel around the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

on a tour to let communities know of the potential dangers of the national debt. The tour was carried out through the Concord Coalition, and was known as the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour

Fiscal Wake-Up Tour

The Fiscal Wake Up Tour was a joint public engagement initiative by The Concord Coalition, The Brookings Institution, and The Heritage Foundation. U. S. Comptroller General David M. Walker was an advisor and participated in each of the Tour's public events...

."

The film competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival

2008 Sundance Film Festival

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was In Bruges and the closing night film was CSNY Déjà Vu.-Films:...

. It began its nationwide showing at the Holland Performing Arts Center

Holland Performing Arts Center

The Holland Performing Arts Center is a performing arts facility located on 13th and Douglas Streets in downtown Downtown Omaha, Nebraska, Nebraska in the United States; it opened in October 2005. Designed by Omaha architectural firm HDR, Inc...

in Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

on 21 August 2008, with a live discussion among Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is...

, Pete Peterson

Peter George Peterson

Peter G. Peterson is an American businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, author, and politician whose most prominent political position was as United States Secretary of Commerce from February 29, 1972, to February 1, 1973 under Richard Nixon. He is most well known currently as...

, David Walker

David M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)

David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...

, William Niskanen

William A. Niskanen

William Arthur Niskanen was an American economist noted as one of the architects of President Ronald Reagan's economic programme and for his contributions to public choice theory. He was also a long-time chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute.-Education:Niskanen received his B.A. from Harvard...

, and Bill Novelli

Bill Novelli

Bill Novelli is an American businessman. He is the Chief Executive Officer of AARP and co-founder of the Divided We Fail campaign. He is a powerful influence in American politics. He was a featured speaker at the town hall screening of I.O.U.S.A.....

following the screening. The film was broadcast on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

on January 10, 2009.

Plot

The film follows Bixby and Walker who describe systematically four serious deficits shaping the U.S. economy: budget, savings, the balance of payments, and leadership. As of the early 2008 release of the film they had created a national debt of over $9.6 trillion, $30,000 for each American.

The budget deficit section highlights the 53 trillion dollars in unfunded benefits (medicare, medicaid and social security) that will come due and can only be paid by tripling taxes or cutting all government spending except for that to those programs.
The savings deficit is created by individuals living beyond their means and accumulating personal debt instead of savings.
The balance of payments problem is the trade deficit caused by the U.S. importing more than it exports, especially from China, draining money and goods from its economy. China has the greatest trade surplus in the world while the USA has the largest trade deficit in the world.
The leadership deficit is the lack of civic or political leaders willing to make it clear Americans must cut government spending, pay more taxes, save more of their personal income and use less imported materials.

Cast

The cast includes
Robert Bixby

Robert Bixby

Robert Bixby is the Executive Director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan grassroots organization that educates the public about fiscal responsibility. The Coalition was founded in 1992, and Bixby was named the Executive Director in 1999...

, David M. Walker

David M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)

David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...

,
Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

,
Douglas Durst,
Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...

,
Yoni Gruskin,
Kay Harms,
Chrissy Hovde,
Paul O'Neill,
Diane Rehm

Diane Rehm

Diane Rehm is an American public radio talk show host. Her program, The Diane Rehm Show, is distributed nationally and internationally by National Public Radio. It is produced at WAMU, which is licensed to American University in Washington, D.C....

,
Robert Rubin

Robert Rubin

Robert Edward Rubin served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton administrations. Before his government service, he spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs eventually serving as a member of the Board, and Co-Chairman from 1990-1992...

,
Scott Spradling,
Mike Tully

Mike Tully

Michael Scott Tully is an American pole vaulter. He represented the United States twice in the Olympics, earning a silver in 1984, and held the American pole vault record from 1984 to 1985.-Early career:...

.
It also includes several members of Congress, including Senators
Kent Conrad

Kent Conrad

Kent Conrad is the senior United States Senator from North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, the North Dakota affiliate of the Democratic Party...

and Judd Gregg

Judd Gregg

Judd Alan Gregg is a former Governor of New Hampshire and former United States Senator from New Hampshire, who served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a businessman and attorney in Nashua before entering politics...

,
and Representatives Ander Crenshaw

Ander Crenshaw

Ander Crenshaw is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...

, George Miller, and Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

.

Archival footage included in the documentary features Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

, Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

,
Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

,
Sue Herrera,
Steve Kroft

Steve Kroft

Steve Kroft is an American journalist and a longtime correspondent for 60 Minutes. His investigative reporting has garnered him much acclaim, including three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy awards, one of which was an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement.-Early life:Born on August 22, 1945 in Kokomo,...

,
Chris Parnell

Chris Parnell

Thomas Christopher "Chris" Parnell is an American comic actor best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998–2006 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Leo Spaceman on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series 30 Rock. Parnell also voices Cyril Figgis on the FX animated comedy...

,
Peter G. Peterson,
Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

,
Tim Russert

Tim Russert

Timothy John "Tim" Russert was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted the eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview...

,
Brian Williams

Brian Williams

Brian Douglas Williams is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, the evening news program of the NBC television network, a position he assumed in 2004...

,
as well as footage of ten former U.S. presidents:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

,
John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

,
Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

,
Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

,
Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

,
Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

,
George Bush

George Bush

George Bush most often refers to:*George H. W. Bush , 41st President of the United States *George W. Bush , 43rd President of the United States , eldest son of George H. W...

,
Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

, and
George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

Post-festival change

In the cut of I.O.U.S.A. screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2008, the original designers from Agoura Financial had audiotape of Nixon conspiring with his advisers to blame the decision to close the “gold window” on “speculators. ” After they sold the film to the Peterson Foundation, that story beat was edited out. The final cut of the film released in Aug. 22, 2008 blames rampant inflation in the 1970s on Arthur Burns, then chair of the Federal Reserve.

In February 2008, Walker announced that he would be resigning from his post as Comptroller General to become the president and CEO of the newly established The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is an American foundation established in 2008 by Peter G. Peterson, a co-founder of the Blackstone Group – an American-based financial-services company...

, a position from which he could more freely draw attention to the serious issues the U.S. is facing.

Reception

I.O.U.S.A. received mostly positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

reported a score of 91% and a Certified Fresh rating with a consensus of "A potent and lithely constructed documentary about America's financial crisis, I.O.U.S.A grabs you with figures but holds you with irreverent wit." It received a score of 70 from Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

and a label of "Generally favorable reviews".

In a January 2008 review after the film's Sundance premiere, Justin Chang wrote:

"With the same eye for snazzy visual aids and casual human eccentricity that informed his delightful crossword-puzzle docu Wordplay
Wordplay (film)
Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors...

, helmer Patrick Creadon tackles a markedly grimmer story in I.O.U.S.A., an alternately amusing and alarming primer on America's off-the-charts fiscal irresponsibility. Meant to raise awareness of the skyrocketing national debt and the disaster it spells for future generations, this highly informative docu reps a heady mix of charts, graphs and talking heads, but its superb packaging and timely subject matter should give it a shot at theatrical exposure before it cashes in on homevid and broadcast slots."

In an August 2008 review focused mostly on the film's subject matter, Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

began with the following:

"A letter to our grandchildren, Raven, Emil and Taylor: I see you growing up into such beautiful people, and I wish all good things to you as you make the leap into adulthood. But I have just seen a documentary titled I.O.U.S.A. that snapped into sharp focus why your lives may not be as pleasant as ours have been."

According to Ebert:

"I don't really believe this review will inspire enormous numbers of people to go see the film. But if they do, they'll find 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. No, not only George W. Bush, but politicians of both parties, who know if they vote against tax cuts, they will be lambasted by their opponents and could lose their jobs."

Later that year, I.O.U.S.A. made Ebert's list of five best documentary films of 2008.

Companion book

I.O.U.S.A. - The Book (ISBN 0470222778), published by John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

, was released in September 2008. Written by the film’s executive producer Addison Wiggin and Agora Financial's Managing Editor, Kate Incontrera, the book expands on the film and details America’s budget, personal savings, trade, and leadership deficits. It also elaborates on several statistics mentioned in the movie - from the $9 trillion federal debt to the $738.6 billion trade deficit to the fact that each citizen owes an average of $30,000. The book includes interviews with Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

, Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan

, Paul Volcker

Paul Volcker

Paul Adolph Volcker, Jr. is an American economist. He was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under United States Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan from August 1979 to August 1987. He is widely credited with ending the high levels of inflation seen in the United States in the 1970s and...

, Robert Rubin

Robert Rubin

, Alice Rivlin

Alice Rivlin

Alice Mitchell Rivlin is an economist, a former U.S. Cabinet official, and an expert on the budget. She has served as the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the first Director of the Congressional Budget Office...

, Pete Peterson

Pete Peterson

Douglas Brian "Pete" Peterson was a U.S. Air Force pilot who spent over six years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese Army after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. He returned to Hanoi in 1997 as the first United States Ambassador to Vietnam...

, David Walker

David Walker

-Musicians:* Dave Walker , British musician, member of the band Fleetwood Mac* David Walker , American opera singer* David Walker , American singer of Southern Gospel music...

, Paul O'Neill, James Areddy, Arthur Laffer

Arthur Laffer

Arthur Betz Laffer is an American economist who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board . Laffer is best known for the Laffer curve, an illustration of the theory that there exists some tax rate between 0% and 100% that will...

, Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes

Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...

, and Bill Bonner

Bill Bonner (author)

Bill Bonner is an author of books and articles on economic and financial subjects. He is the founder and president of Agora Publishing, and the principal author of a daily financial column known as The Daily Reckoning...

. I.O.U.S.A. was also loosely inspired by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin's book, Empire of Debt

Empire of Debt

Empire of Debt is a book written by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, subtitled "The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis" . The authors argue that the United States has transformed from a republic into an empire, although it also discusses such varied themes as the wisdom of the dead and a style of...

Plot

Cast

Post-festival change

Reception

Companion book

See also