Taking a deeper look at the film IOUSA.

IOUSA Not OK: An Analysis of the Deficit Disaster Story in the Film IOUSA

The movie IOUSA portrays a picture of the United States as a country hopelessly addicted to debt. According to the film, the country is about to fall off a cliff if the budget and the economy continue on their current course. While there are certainly many grounds to be concerned about the country’s economic condition, the view presented in IOUSA is one-sided and misleading.

This analysis puts many of the issues raised in the movie in a broader context and features a minute-by-minute viewer’s guide of inaccurate or misleading statements in the film. It is important that the public be well informed about economic issues and not allow itself to be railroaded into ill-considered policy choices.

IOUSA Budget Deficit Calculator

The enormous budget deficits projected for future years have the starring role in the documentary IOUSA. However, the simple fact that the film conceals is that these scary deficits are driven almost entirely by projections of exploding private sector health care costs. This calculator allows you to see what the projected U.S. budget deficit would be, as a percentage of GDP, if the United States had the same per person health care costs as various other countries.


Discussion of the Film

A video of Dean Baker's discussion with Diane Rogers, Chief Economist of the Concord Coalition, after a screening at Bus Boys & Poets in D.C. on November 23, 2008.

Op-Eds & Columns

The Peter G. Peterson Crew Is Coming After Your Social Security and Medicare
Dean Baker
The Guardian Unlimited, February 23, 2009

The Economists Who Missed the Housing Bubble Are Coming After Your Social Security
Dean Baker
Talking Points Memo, February 13, 2009

Washington Post: The Problem is YOU, Not "We"
Dean Baker
Talking Points Memo, December 21, 2008

IOUSA: Failed Scare Flick of the Decade
Dean Baker
The Guardian Unlimited, December 1, 2008

Paper Wealth and the Economic Crisis
Dean Baker
Talking Points Memo, November 28, 2008