I.O.U.S.A - Addison Wiggin [5]
Paul Volcker: Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board (1979–1987), and best known for battling the infl ation of the early 1980s.
Hon. Ron Paul: Outspoken proponent of “free market” economics and critic of the Federal Reserve System.
Alan Greenspan: Chairman of the Federal Board (1987–2006, and still seen as a leading authority on U.S. economic and monetary policy.
Warren Buffett: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and regarded as one of the world’s greatest stock market investors.
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xviii I.O.U.S.A. Cast of Characters
James Areddy: Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Shanghai, China.
Paul O’Neill: 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who was fi red after 23 months, after having a ‘difference of opinions’ about defi cits with Vice President Cheney.
Art Laffer: Former member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Board. He is best known for popularizing his Laffer curve.
CREW
Addison Wiggin, Executive Producer
Patrick Creadon, Director
Christine O’Malley, Producer
Sarah Gibson, Producer
Doug Blush, Editor
Brian Oakes, Graphic Design
Theodore James, Associate Producer
Kate Incontrera, Associate Producer
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Acknowledgments
It turns out that reverse engineering a documentary fi lm into a companion book is not as easy as it might sound. Cre-atively, you can convey a lot of information with images, music, and dialogue in a movie that require much more background and setup in a book. There are a number of people we want to thank for allowing us to take six weeks in the summer of 2008 to wrap our heads around two and half years of travel, fi lming, interviews, and research.
First, we want to thank Ian Mathias and Greg Kadajski for holding down the fort in Agora Financial ’ s 5 Min. Forecast and The Daily Reckoning, respectively. Writing, editing, and publishing daily stock market and economic commentary is a daunting task when you ’ re working as a team. Going it alone is much more so. Both have done an admirable job. Thanks to all the folks who work so hard at Agora Financial, including but not limited to Joseph Schriefer, Mark O ’ Dell, Greg Grillot, Chris Mayer, Eric Fry, Michelle Nickels, John Forde, Chad Barrett, and Mike Pizzo, for relieving us of critical duty during the writing of the book, and to Bruce Robertson for helping negotiate all the paperwork and the labyrinthine account ing process.
We ’ d like to thank Bill Bonner, too, not just for his insights in The Daily Reckoning, but for biting his tongue and giving us the freedom to explore the documentary project at will. Thanks to Matt Turner, Myles Norin, and Bob Compton for supporting the project legally and fi nancially, and to Scott Weiser and Doug Nevin for ably representing our interests in the fi lm acquisition by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
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xx Acknowledgments
Thank you to David Walker for taking such an interest in our work, for helping us get the story straight on the nation ’ s four defi cits, and for providing the Foreword to this companion piece. It ’ s worth noting that while David wrote the Foreword to this book and his consultation was helpful in piecing the script together, the words in this book are our own and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions advocated by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. In addition, we ’ d like to thank Elizabeth Wilner at the Peterson Foundation. Thanks to Bob Bixby and all the folks at the Concord Coalition for the ideas and insights they contributed to the fi lm and subsequently the book.
A big thank - you goes to the amazing crew that put together the movie: Patrick Creadon, the director; Christine O ’ Malley, Sarah Gibson, and Theodore James, producers extraordinaire; Brian Oakes, who designed all the graphics you see in the fi lm and in this book; and our editor, Doug Blush. We know this subject can be extremely diffi cult, but this group of talented individuals tackled this project wholeheartedly. We are very