Summary
Justin Webb, the BBC's former North America Editor, regards the United States with affection and respect. But he is worried that America is in denial about the extent of its financial problems and therefore incapable of dealing with the gravest crisis the country has ever faced.
A decade of tax cuts and increased public spending took the United States from an era of budget surpluses to one of growing deficits. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that federal debt could reach 90 per cent of GDP within a decade. The nation's partisan political culture, argue some, means its leaders are incapable of taking the necessary action to avert financial disaster and a loss of international influence.
Justin Webb examines the consequences of failing to deal with the growing debt and looks for any signs that the United States might start to tackle its problems before it is too late.
Interviewees include Diane Coyle, David Frum, Richard Haass, Jeffrey Sachs and Anne Applebaum.
Producer: Bill Law.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
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| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis. |
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| 0:42.0 | www. BBC.k. UK slash podcasts. In this week's program Justin Webb asks |
| 0:50.0 | is America doomed. |
| 0:57.0 | On my last day in the United States, after eight years of reporting there for the BBC, |
| 1:00.0 | eight years of enormously happy family life in the Washington suburbs, surrounded by sunshine |
| 1:06.2 | and white picket fences, they held a burger eating competition at the bottom of our street. Local news anchors in peach-colored trousseutes |
| 1:15.4 | interviewed a beast's spotty youths before they ran off to be sick. It was |
| 1:20.2 | revolting and it brought vividly to my mind the contradictions inherent in modern American life |
| 1:26.7 | the strength of character of the nation its core which I had witnessed repeatedly in my eight years versus the shambolic |
| 1:34.8 | ghastliness of much of the reality of modern America, the super-sized nation |
| 1:40.4 | childish and spoiled. |
| 1:42.6 | Since I left Washington, one subject in particular |
| 1:46.0 | has become a focal point of the debate on America's future. |
| 1:50.3 | It's a subject on the minds of all thoughtful Americans, but it's a subject of huge importance to us as well, |
| 1:57.0 | because America's ability to grasp this subject, to understand it intellectually and to deal with it in practice could help shape the way the |
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