Created and Compiled by Mary Meeker
Epstein Suite indexes the text; the original document lives at its official source. We don't host the original file — view it on the official release to read it in full.
View the original on the official releasePeople & organizations named in this document
Being named here is not an accusation of wrongdoing.
Document text
Text is machine OCR and may contain errors. Confirm against the original source above.
About USA Inc.
Created and Compiled by Mary Meeker
February 2011
This report looks at the federal government as if it were a business, with the goal of informing the
debate about our nation’s financial situation and outlook. In it, we examine USA Inc.’s income
statement and balance sheet. We aim to interpret the underlying data and facts and illustrate
patterns and trends in easy-to-understand ways. We analyze the drivers of federal revenue and
the history of expense growth, and we examine basic scenarios for how America might move
toward positive cash flow.
Thanks go out to Liang Wu and Fred Miller and former Morgan Stanley colleagues whose
contributions to this report were invaluable. In addition, Richard Ravitch, Emil Henry, Laura
Tyson, Al Gore, Meg Whitman, John Cogan, Peter Orszag and Chris Liddell provided inspiration
and insights as the report developed. It includes a 2-page foreword; a 12-page text summary;
and 460 PowerPoint slides containing data-rich observations. There’s a lot of material — think of
it as a book that happens to be a slide presentation.
We hope the slides in particular provide relevant context for the debate about America’s
financials. To kick-start the dialogue, we are making the entire slide portion of the report
available as a single work for non-commercial distribution (but not for excerpting, or modifying or
creating derivatives) under the Creative Commons license. The spirit of connectivity and sharing
has become the essence of the Internet, and we encourage interested parties to use the slides to
advance the discussion of America’s financial present and future. If you would like to add your
own data-driven observations, contribute your insights, improve or clarify ours, please contact us
to request permission and provide your suggestions. This document is only a starting point for
discussion; the information in it will benefit greatly from your thoughtful input.
This report is available online and on iPad at www.kpcb.com/usainc
In addition, print copies are available at www.amazon.com
CB www.kpcb.com USA Inc. _ ii
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020825
Have a question about what this document contains?
Ask the documents