I.O.U.S.A., a new documentary that exposes the alarming amount of debt in this country, hits theaters tomorrow. Some critics have suggested it's the "An Inconvenient Truth" for the economy. It highlights the one fact that we cannot escape -- that the federal government's deficit has risen to a new high at $9.5 trillion dollars.
The film's executive producer and co-writer Addison Wiggin's decided to make this movie back in 2005 when everyone thought they could get rich by buying real estate. He and his co-writer looked at the balance sheets of banks and thought the mounting access to credit could create unprecedented problems. Talk about timing! The movie is 87 minutes long and includes frank conversations with Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Paul O'Neil, Paul Volcker and David Walker, the former Head of the GAO (Government Accountability Office), who resigned from his post in March so that he could speak frankly about the mounting debt crisis.
According to Wiggin, we are actually in a $53 trillion dollar hole if we account for entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He goes on to point out that "the debt has increased our risk of being held hostage by foreign leaders." No surprise there.
In an election year, where the economy is the number one issue people are voting on at the polls, a movie about our financial future seems perfectly well timed. I have not seen I.O.U.S.A. yet but I do intend to go. The reviews have been surprisingly good. Maybe it is time we all looked ourselves in the eye and took some individual responsibility for our own personal debt.
Are you more highly levered today than you were five or ten years ago?
How much is 9.5 trillion? Someone once explained to me what he called his" Freight Train Theory of Money". Just follow me a minute.
At the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago some time ago, they had a cube of money. That cube is roughly 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, and contained a million dollars. So, 1 million dollars takes up 27 cubic feet. Hey, that's a lot.
A trillion is a million million dollars. A million of those cubes would take up 27,000,000 cubic feet of money. I know this is boring, but you've got to trust me. Press on.
Now, your typical boxcar on a freight train is 50 feet long by 9 feet wide by 11 feet high on the inside. That's 4950 cubic feet of cargo space. If we load our cubes of dollars onto boxcars (and make them fit perfectly, by cutting up cubes and wedging them in so the boxcars are completely full) that means we have 5,455 box cars (1).
So, this means that the U.S.A just took a freight train that is 5,455 boxcars long full of cash and then sent it off to foreign lands. Bye bye money train! Now imagine doing
this 10 times.
When you put money into terms of freight trains driving off cliffs, people understand it a lot better.
(1)Technically 5454.54 repeating. However as the train is making repeated deliveries in our example, by rounding up we take care of this.
(2)In case you were wondering, The longest train ever was 7.353 km (4.568 miles) long, and consisted of 682 ore cars pushed by 8 powerful diesel-electric locomotives. Assembled by BHP Iron Ore, the train travelled 275 km (171 miles) from the company's Newman and Yandi mines to Port Hedland, Western Australia, on June 21st, 2001.
------ from Guinnessworldrecords.com
August 21, 2008 at 4:44 pm
silo123j
Gary,
It's quite simple.... you vote them out of office.
August 21, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Jim
I blame Bush. All great nations come to an end. Ours began to end with GWB. I didn't expect the USA to be a superpower forever, but I always thought I would not see the decline in my lifetime. GWB changed that in a single term as president (the second term was just the cement on the cake).
I used to think a US president couldn't do that much damage to our nation, given our system of checks and balances. Boy was I wrong. They say hindsight is 20-20. I can't wait for hindsight to judge GWB.
August 21, 2008 at 3:55 pm
chuck
U know this defecit threat could be bigger than any bubble in the financial markets. Why mortgage your debt to lenders who could be a national security threat? I agree it's time for real change in Washington.
August 21, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Brian
"that the federal government’s deficit has risen to a new high at $9.5 trillion dollars."
The deficit does not equal $9.5 Trillion. The national debt does. They are totally different terms. Debt does not equal deficit. This irritates those who know something about economics.
Also, if you use '$' then you don't need to state "dollars" after the amount. It is redundant. Welcome to the journalism!
August 21, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Dave Swiderski - Penn State University
It's sad but our government has always been a "reactionary one" and will finally deal with this entitlement problem when they are forced to - costing trillions more than if they would deal with it now.
There is no doubt that the government is going to be aggressively searching for new additional revenues to help fund this gap. You watch, but one way they are going to raise additional money is by changing the law and start taxing the growth in Roths. Think about it. If the accounts now grow tax free, then why would they need your SSN?
August 21, 2008 at 4:09 am
aboutthis blog
Alexis Glick is an anchor for FOX Business Network. Prior to joining FOX, Glick served as a correspondent for the Today Show and co-anchored the third hour of that program. Before her stint at NBC News, she was the senior trading correspondent for CNBC and reported from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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How much is 9.5 trillion? Someone once explained to me what he called his" Freight Train Theory of Money". Just follow me a minute. At the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago some time ago, they had a cube of money. That cube is roughly 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, and contained a million dollars. So, 1 million dollars takes up 27 cubic feet. Hey, that's a lot. A trillion is a million million dollars. A million of those cubes would take up 27,000,000 cubic feet of money. I know this is boring, but you've got to trust me. Press on. Now, your typical boxcar on a freight train is 50 feet long by 9 feet wide by 11 feet high on the inside. That's 4950 cubic feet of cargo space. If we load our cubes of dollars onto boxcars (and make them fit perfectly, by cutting up cubes and wedging them in so the boxcars are completely full) that means we have 5,455 box cars (1). So, this means that the U.S.A just took a freight train that is 5,455 boxcars long full of cash and then sent it off to foreign lands. Bye bye money train! Now imagine doing this 10 times. When you put money into terms of freight trains driving off cliffs, people understand it a lot better. (1)Technically 5454.54 repeating. However as the train is making repeated deliveries in our example, by rounding up we take care of this. (2)In case you were wondering, The longest train ever was 7.353 km (4.568 miles) long, and consisted of 682 ore cars pushed by 8 powerful diesel-electric locomotives. Assembled by BHP Iron Ore, the train travelled 275 km (171 miles) from the company's Newman and Yandi mines to Port Hedland, Western Australia, on June 21st, 2001. ------ from Guinnessworldrecords.com
silo123j
Gary, It's quite simple.... you vote them out of office.
Jim
I blame Bush. All great nations come to an end. Ours began to end with GWB. I didn't expect the USA to be a superpower forever, but I always thought I would not see the decline in my lifetime. GWB changed that in a single term as president (the second term was just the cement on the cake). I used to think a US president couldn't do that much damage to our nation, given our system of checks and balances. Boy was I wrong. They say hindsight is 20-20. I can't wait for hindsight to judge GWB.
chuck
U know this defecit threat could be bigger than any bubble in the financial markets. Why mortgage your debt to lenders who could be a national security threat? I agree it's time for real change in Washington.
Brian
"that the federal government’s deficit has risen to a new high at $9.5 trillion dollars." The deficit does not equal $9.5 Trillion. The national debt does. They are totally different terms. Debt does not equal deficit. This irritates those who know something about economics. Also, if you use '$' then you don't need to state "dollars" after the amount. It is redundant. Welcome to the journalism!
Dave Swiderski - Penn State University
It's sad but our government has always been a "reactionary one" and will finally deal with this entitlement problem when they are forced to - costing trillions more than if they would deal with it now. There is no doubt that the government is going to be aggressively searching for new additional revenues to help fund this gap. You watch, but one way they are going to raise additional money is by changing the law and start taxing the growth in Roths. Think about it. If the accounts now grow tax free, then why would they need your SSN?