IOUSA

sickmint79 · 07-30-2008, 02:12 AM

i have been waiting almost a year for this movie to come out. it is made by the guys that publish the investment newsletters i read. it is about the economy being a mess and i always hoped it would have come out earlier because i think it would have helped rp get some votes. the movie was invited to show at sundance and won some awards there as well. some of their predictions came to start happening so parts of it have been re-shot and the current version has just been completed. they have been wondering how to distribute the movie, but pete peterson (Peter George Peterson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) has purchased the movie for his new foundation which is striving to spread the message and has a billion dollars behind it. so the movie has gone from being in maybe 6 theaters to now over 400, but is currently set for only a one time showing. it will be shown august 21st (thursday) at 7pm cst. after the movie there will be a live simulcast interview/panel with warren buffet, pete peterson, and david walker - formerly basically the top accountant for the federal government.

the movie's website is here - I.O.U.S.A.: The Movie

you can watch a trailer here -

you can find theaters it is playing in here - http://www.fathomevents.com/details.aspx?eventid=728 - i'll be going in gurnee.

as a bonus if you buy your ticket online and forward a copy of the receipt to customerservice@agorafinancial.com you will get a free 1 yr subscription to this newsletter - Strategic Investment - A Macro Investing Newsletter from Agora Financial as a note, i also have access to all of their other newsletters.

yes, it's a movie about economics - but it has great reviews and should be shot well enough to keep you interested, as their intent is to get their message across about real problems and to make the information consumable. i highly recommend attending the showing, i don't think you will regret it.

**hendricius** · 07-30-2008, 07:24 AM

I am myself more liberal, but the American marketing system is a mess, in no way sustainable. The social market economy is the market economy of the 21rst century, however it is a lot harder to establish and not as agile as the pure market economy.

sickmint79 · 07-30-2008, 08:35 PM

market* system you mean? how does a "social market economy" work? and we certainly do not have a free market economy now. central banks have much to blame and are certainly not part of a free market. in socialist european countries (like norway) a similar banking situation the government let fail, whereas we are bailing them out. and we have things like fannie and freddie - privatized profit and socialized risk/loss. our problems now are often blamed on unfettered capitalism - free market too free! when in reality the blame is on this hidden socialism.

**hendricius** · 07-31-2008, 08:36 AM

The government tries to stay out of the economics but some times enters the market to ensure the welfare of the citizens. Citizens that are unable to take part in the market get help from the state. Those people are usually handicapped and would not be able to take part in the market. The state helps them with money or places to live to ensure their life quality.

It works pretty well here in Germany, except that we have higher taxes (gas price etc.). The social system is quite expensive, that's why most of the countries that have such a system have billions of debts, while free market economies quite often have +- 0 debts as long as they don't start a war :P.

sickmint79 · 07-31-2008, 05:51 PM

well, i would say that may be evidence of it not working very well - if there is a ton of debt and everything is expensive. our hidden socialism has contributed to why housing is so expensive here and there is so much debt associated with it. same for education. as well as health care.

i think i'd need to see more specifically how things worked before i really formed an opinion on it. i am pretty impressed at the output of germany, certainly leaves the rest of the EU behind as well.

sickmint79 · 08-03-2008, 11:52 PM

looks like warren buffet's squanderville vs.thriftville will be animated in this, a very famous essay of his - Squanderville versus Thriftville (Warren Buffet)

longer trailer -

misterconductor69 · 08-06-2008, 06:13 PM

I saw it yesterday. Incredible what the politicians, especially the current president have done. It took 42 presidents 200+ years to run the National Debt up to just under 6 trillion dollars and Bush(43) only 8 years to almost double it, all the while cutting taxes on his rich friends.

sickmint79 · 08-06-2008, 06:40 PM

where did you see it ??

misterconductor69 · 08-09-2008, 10:33 AM

It was work-related. I work in the film industry.

**hendricius** · 08-09-2008, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by misterconductor69

It was work-related. I work in the film industry.

Really? Cool, I have been in universal studios a week ago :P. But I guess that's something different...

The German reunification cost around 1500 billion euro which is 30 % of our total debts. The major problem that caused the debts were the financial politics of the 70s and 80s. We spent billions on supporting our market when it was weak and saved money when our market was doing okay. The only problem: We spent a lot more than we got back.

If major market experts now a days recall what the politicians did back in that time, they come to the conclusion that it was ineffective and consequently waste of money.

Current politicians try to make our social system better compatible with the market. This year is the first year where we are able to pay back a little.

sickmint79 · 08-09-2008, 08:19 PM

conductor what do you do?

hendricius how is inflation in germany? i heard germans were annoyed by current inflation and the thought that the rate may be cut or kept too low to try and encourage growth in EU members with weak economies.

**hendricius** · 08-09-2008, 11:49 PM

Inflation is around 3% because of increasing oil and energy costs.

Yes, that's a big problem here. Germany is probably one of the countries with best economy in the EU. Every country pays money for weaker countries. The amount of money depends on the strength of the economy. So Germany pays quite a lot (too much if you ask me) to support weaker countries in the EU. With ever new, weak, member we pay around 10 billion more a year. England and France pay nearly nothing because of contracts set up when they joined the EU. That's relatively unfair and probably one of the reasons why Swiss and Norway are no members yet. They would have to pay billions every year without benefiting...

sickmint79 · 08-10-2008, 09:59 AM

yeah i read this, i thought it was higher - IMF Survey: German Inflation Should Not Cause Major Worries

in the US typical savings account is less than 3% but let's even pretend it is. using the present calculation by the government our annualized rate is 5%, using the old way of calculation (From 1979) it is over 8%. so basically the real interest rate is negative - if you are saving money in the bank you are losing purchasing power.

you seem to note germany carrying the EU is unfair, but that is what happens under socialistic systems! a lot of people seem to advocate socialism until it ends up being the fruits of their labor which are forcefully redistributed.

**hendricius** · 08-10-2008, 04:30 PM

Yup. That is a trade off for the stability and security of the EU.

sickmint79 · 08-10-2008, 05:50 PM

i think there's more to the trade off than that - really aside from germany there's not much in terms of impressive economies in the eu. is switzerland in the eu? they are kind of a niche thing though anyway with their financial expertise.

impressive story in euro IMO is estonia !

**hendricius** · 08-10-2008, 07:58 PM

Switzerland and Norway both are not in the EU. If they joined the EU they would join Germany's party of the so called 'Payer countries'.

With the money I earn every month I could not make a good living in Norway. The costs for food etc. are immense. One Example: A Mc Flurry (mc donalds ice cream) is around 2 $ in Germany and 5 $ in Norway. Switzerland is a little bit cheaper but still too expensive for a normal person. Many rich Europeans move to Switzerland because of extremely low taxes. That's another problem, Germany is not attractive for rich people because of high taxes which are an ultimate consequence of our social state.

Estonia is getting help from Russia. Most of the people living there are Russians and consequently have interest in collaborating with Russia. Rich Russians see a lot of potential in weaker EU countries and consequently pump money in countries such as Estonia.

sickmint79 · 08-11-2008, 09:51 PM

well they have capital inflow because of low taxes and booming business. estonia's success is largely due to adopting free market policies, i think the leader read "free to choose" by friedman and just assumed usa followed all those things (it doesn't) and started freeing up the economy there - which has yielded great success.

misterconductor69 · 08-21-2008, 10:55 AM

Movie paints picture of catastrophic future - CNN.com

Jenny · 08-28-2008, 08:10 PM

Sounds interesting, Something I would like to check out.

sickmint79 · 08-28-2008, 08:29 PM

was pretty good, highly recommended !