Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wessel (economics editor, Wall Street Journal; In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic) presents a timely analysis of the U.S. federal budget. He examines the fiscal 2011 budget year, breaking down the allocation of federal money and revealing the current budget's unsustainability. Today, Wessel notes, federal spending is nearly six times what it was when FDR was first elected in 1932, approximately one out of every four dollars in the overall economy. He clearly and succinctly describes the vast scope of the budget, the budget deficit, and the almost unimaginable total national debt. He also discusses the politics and people behind the budget, citing insiders like White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, former Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.