Running on empty
Subtitle: how the Democratic and Republican Parties are bankrupting our future and what Americans can do about it
By: Peter G. Peterson.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9780374252878
First sentence: When the towers fell, I was out of town attending a corporate board meeting (which promptly adjourned) and spent the rest of the day watching cable news and trying to call my wife and family in Manhattan.
Description: "When George W. Bush came into office in 2001, the ten-year budget balance was officially projected to be at a surplus of $5.6 trillion. But after three big tax cuts, the bursting of the stock-market bubble, and the devastating effects of 9/11 on the economy, the surplus has evaporated, and the deficit is expected to grow to $5 trillion over the next decade. America was once the greatest creditor to nations around the globe; it is now the largest debtor in the world. And the domestic deficit is only half the story. Given our $500 billion trade deficit and our anemic savings rate, we depend on an unprecedented $2 billion of foreign capital every working day. If foreign confidence were to wane, this could lead to a dreaded hard landing." "In Running on Empty, Peterson takes us behind the politicians' smoke-and-mirror games, and forcefully explains what we must do to rescue the future of our country."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-239).