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Running on Empty
Book

Running on Empty

How the Democratic and Republican Parties are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It

Peter G. Peterson
FSG, 2004

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Few authors have former U.S. Treasury official Peter G. Peterson’s credibility, so few others can demand the attention this book deserves and is receiving. Released in an election year, this vitally important, clearly presented treatise commands bipartisan action. Peterson demands explanations from the professional politicians who are largely responsible for jeopardizing America’s future growth and standard of living. With a firm grasp of complex economic, political and demographic relationships, buttressed by facts from political and economic think tanks, Peterson, an experienced official in former Republican administrations, lambastes both parties. He explains how they have neglected their fiscal stewardship in order to pacify special interest groups and constituencies at the expense of the entire nation. Both parties are guilty, Peterson charges, of violating the public trust. getAbstract.com thinks this excellent example of political economic writing should be essential reading for anyone interested in America’s future.

Take-Aways

  • The United States, once the greatest creditor nation, is now the world’s largest debtor.
  • America depends on an unprecedented $2 billion in foreign capital every working day to buttress its weak savings rate and $500 billion trade deficit.
  • From 2001 to 2004, the U.S. deficit grew by $10 trillion, of which one-third can be attributed directly to President Bush’s tax cut programs.

About the Author

Peter G. Peterson is the chairman of the Blackstone Group, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is founding president of the Concord Coalition. He has written four other books, including Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Will Transform America - and the World.

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