Preface -- The coming financial crisis : it's worse than you think -- Is the United States becoming Greece? -- The debt deniers -- It's about entitlements, stupid -- Social security : facing up to ponzi -- Medicare: the 800/pound gorilla -- Medicaid : strike two for government health care --...

When President James Monroe announced in his 1824 message to Congress that the [nation's] large public debt, [accumulated since the Revolution], would be extinguished on January 1, 1835, Congress crafted legislation to transform that prediction into reality. Yet John Quincy Adams, Monroe's...

This book, edited and researched by experts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), looks at fiscal adjustment plans in advanced economies, comparing the planned or projected reductions in debts and deficits to the actual outcomes. It also looks at whether spending exceeded expectations or...