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The explosive growth in our national debt leaves America vulnerable to foreign intervention by countries like Saudi Arabia and China who we are massively in hock to. In fact, our nation's wealth is now largely a house of cards, as if we have gone on a credit card spending spree for which we cannot pay the bill.

It's not the kind of reality that politicians like to talk about, because they helped create it, along with the culture of endless consumption.

According to a recent Washington Post story on the about-to-be-released film version of this book, "Empire of Debt,": "The nation's debt now accounts for 66 percent of the gross national product. But unless things change, the film argues that the cost of aging baby boomers will push that proportion to 244 percent by 2040, twice what it was at the end of World War II, our highest level of national debt. A debt that high, even super-investor Warren E. Buffett says in the film, 'could create real political instability.'"

And that's a bit of an understatement.

One of the key experts in the film, "I.O.U.S.A.," warns: "The debt has increased our risk of being held hostage by foreign lenders" and "Our situation is serious, and it is deteriorating with the passage of time" and "The financial condition of the U.S. is worse than advertised."

Ah, but you won't hear that from the war-profiteering, breat beating, flag-lapel wearing boasters of American Exceptionalism. After all, who could be elected telling our citizens that our nation's economic ship of state is riding on loans from pawn shops (nations with cash surpluses, unlike us, since the Bush Administration sent the national debt soaring to record levels) around the world?

Of the movie based on this book, the WP writes: The movie, "I.O.U.S.A.," debuting Aug. 21, is an 87-minute alarm on what it calls the tsunami of debt bearing down on the United States' future, caused by the rising national deficit, the trade imbalance and the pending costs of baby boomers cashing in on entitlements. Early reviewers have dubbed the film "An Inconvenient Truth" for the economy, meaning it's not exactly the feel-good movie of late summer 2008.

The book is the source material for the movie, so you'll get it first hand by reading this economic wake-up call to America.

Of course, except for the financial analysts who wrote "Empire of Debt," few public figures will fess up to our crisis, because it calls into question the idea that we are masters of our own destiny.

As the Post reports of the message of the film and book: You probably know that the national deficit is $9.6 trillion and rising. What you don't know is how bad things really are. If you include all the unfunded entitlement obligations -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and so forth -- we are actually in a $53 trillion hole, Walker says.

This is a reality that you won't hear either party's presidential candidate talking about too much.

No one wants to tell Americans that they are on the precipice of an economic catastrophe, but this book does -- and for that reason, it should be read with a sense of urgency.

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BUZZFLASH REVIEWS