"As you know, Bill has been laboring to establish the parameters of America's empire of debt for the past several months, including such nuggets as these:
Alan Greenspan took office on Aug. 11, 1987. Since then:
* Consumer Credit Outstanding has grown from $672.2 billion to $2,147.4 billion (a 219% jump)
* Household Credit Market Debt Outstanding has grown $2,711.54 billion to $10,764.54 billion (a 297% jump)
* Domestic Nonfinancial Business Debt shot from $1,974.1 billion to $5,269.4 billion (a 168% jump)
* The ISDA reports that international interest rate and currency derivatives outstanding shot from $865 billion in 1987 to $201.413 trillion in 2005.
* M3, the broadest measure of money, has soared from $3620.160 billion to $9976.729 billion (a 175% jump)
* The currency portion of the money stock has gone from $190 billion to $715 billion (a 276% jump)
* The trade deficit has gone from -150.7 to -756.8
* The total of foreign-owned U.S. assets has shot from $1.7 trillion to $11.5 trillion.
"We've collected all these observations, added a few more, fleshed out a few new ideas and added some nifty charts... pulled the whole mess together in a book we now call The Empire of Debt. The book, a sequel-of-sorts to our previous book Financial Reckoning Day, is in the process of being shipped to bookstores around the country.
"But here's an idea...tell me what you think...we're going to ship 567 copies of Empire of Debt to Washington...one earmarked for each and every Congressman, Senator - and a special package for Mr. Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We'll send another next door to the Federal Reserve for good measure.
"Why? Well, apart from the Honorable Ron Paul, it doesn't appear there's a simple soul inside the beltway who's aware of what's going on with the nation's balance sheet. Or if they are aware, they are incapable of doing anything about the increasing levels of spending going on. And as the government goes, so goes consumer behavior. As one real estate agent we know here in Baltimore stated this week, 'Hey, there's free money out there, why not grab some and spend it?!'
"Anyway, write in to [email protected] and tell us what you think. Maybe we should send out the copies and arrange a day in the future to have all the readers of The Daily Reckoning call in to their Congressman's office and say: 'Hey, we sent you a book today. If nothing else you have to at least read the introduction.'"