Steering Clear ― How to Avoid a Debt Crisis and Secure Our Economic Future

From one of America's most respected leaders, a plan for overcoming the national debt and improving America’s long-term economic future.

Philanthropist, businessman, and former Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson argues that America must address its long-term debt in order to build a strong economy, today and in the future. If we continue to ignore America’s unsustainable fiscal challenges, we are steering our country towards a collision with long-term debt that will diminish economic opportunities for the next generation, weaken our ability to protect vulnerable people, and undermine the competitive strength of our businesses in a vastly more global and technological world.

The gross federal debt now exceeds $17 trillion, and it is projected to soar in coming decades, diverting resources from the critical private and public investments we need to make in education, R&D, and infrastructure to secure our economic future and Americans’ well-being. Yet Washington is gridlocked, risking a crippled economy for our children and grandchildren.

Peterson offers a non-partisan analysis of our dilemma and a robust set of options for solving our long-term debt problem. He looks at the impact of aging baby boomers, growing health care costs, outdated military spending, our flawed tax code, and our divided political system. And he shows how we can improve our fiscal outlook through a mix of pro-growth reforms that would reduce government spending and increase revenue, which could be phased in gradually in the years to come once our economy has recovered.

It's not too late to restore the United States as a land of opportunity. Peterson’s diagnosis and recommendations can help us confront our fiscal reality, address our long-term debt, and steer the country safely toward a more secure economic future.

Peter G. Peterson is the founder and chairman of the non-partisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which works to increase public awareness and accelerate action on the key fiscal challenges threatening America's future. He is also the co-founder of The Blackstone Group, a former chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, a former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Founder and Chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, former Secretary of Commerce under President Richard Nixon, and former Chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell company, among many other positions in the public and private sectors. He is the author of six previous books, including The Education of an American Dreamer and the bestseller Running on Empty. He lives in New York City.