I.O.U.S.A. (26 page)

• Establish a personal budget and stick to it.

• Form a fi nancial plan that considers the following questions:

• What are my short - term and long - term fi nancial needs?

• What major milestones do I need to prepare for? Education? Family? Retirement?

• How much do I need to save and invest in order to retire at a comfortable level that can be maintained over time?

• Put that plan into immediate action — don ’ t wait.

• Be responsible in your use of credit. Save and invest wisely.

• Teach your children the importance of planning, saving, budgeting, investing, and making responsible use of credit.

Source:
Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “ Citizens Guide to the Financial Condition of the United States. ”

The Mt. Rushmore Curtain Call

During the course of the
I.O.U.S.A.
project, we were very fortunate to meet with what we see as some of the heaviest of Washington ’ s economic heavy hitters. This is why, throughout the production of the movie and this book, our whole team referred to our interview subjects as the economic

“ Mt. Rushmore crowd. ”

While their views on the economy and specifi c solutions on what to do about the United States ’ fi scal dilemma vary, they can agree on one thing: Americans cannot live beyond their means forever. That is as true for the government as it is for individuals.

Here we give you the Mt. Rushmore crowd

’ s parting

thoughts:

Alice Rivlin :
“ People may think somehow that decisions are made by other people far away, but in a democracy c05.indd 89

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90 The

Mission

that ’ s not really true. It is your representative in Congress or in the Senate that is infl uencing what happens — so it ’ s pretty important for people to pay attention to it. ”

Ron Paul
: “ We can ’ t afford to pay all these bills, and if we just pay for these bills by printing money, it will destroy the currency — and that will be a much, much more painful reaction than us just tightening our belts and living within our means. ”

Warren Buffett
: “ I do think that piling up more and more and more external debt and having the rest of the world own more and more of the United States may create real political instability down the line and increase the possibly that demagogues come along and do some very foolish things. ”

Peter G. Peterson
: “ Has something fundamental happened to the character of our people or our societal structure, or has no one stepped up to provide the leadership? We ’ re not going to know that until we try. ”

Alan Greenspan
: “ What these various different defi cits are suggesting is that we are trying to consume more than we produce. We can do that in the short

Without savings, there is no future.
run, but over the long run, it is a

— ALAN GREENSPAN

course impossible. Without savings,

there is no future. ”

Bill Bonner
: “ In America we ’ re spending debt; in foreign countries they

’ re creating goods and services, they

’ re

building economies, they ’ re building factories. They are creating real wealth in China, in India; but in America it ’ s kind of a phony wealth, it ’ s a wealth we get by spending money we don ’ t really have, for things we don ’ t need. And it ’ s putting us in the hole, rather than putting us ahead of things. ”

Paul Volcker
: “ We don ’ t want to have to go through big recessions to teach lessons. We ’ d like to anticipate what needs to be done while maintaining the growth of the c05.indd 90

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Chapter 5 The Leadership Defi cit
91

economy. And the threat always is an unstable economy, an unstable currency; and that it ’ s destructive not just to economic life, but it can be destructive of America ’ s position in the world, which is a concern to me more generally. ”

Paul O ’ Neill
: “ We need presidents who are so devoted to doing the right thing with and for the American people, that they ’ re prepared to lose for their values and to hang their values out in public for everyone to see them. ”

Robert Rubin
: “ It ’ s actually not that complicated. You know there ’ s this old saying, ‘ There ’ s no free lunch. ’ I think that almost captures the whole thing. Just as for an individual in the fi nal analysis, there is no free lunch, there ’ s no free lunch for a national economy. ”

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