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Cost of War in Iraq: $3 trillion

by ryan | February 28, 2008 at 10:32 am | 3140 views | 1 comment | 10 recommendations

Shifting Sands: Couric Sees Iraq Progress

South Carolina Politisite Political Predictions, Huckabee by 5% Points

I haven't read the book so I can't judge it. However, if this is to be an accurate calculation of the cost of the war it also needs to account for the economic stimulus which results from 'war time' economies. Most of the money spent on arms and airplanes etc. goes back in to the US economy through the industries which produce them and the government therefore recovers some of the money through taxes. Nevertheless, $3 trillion is a lot of money and the most important point is the discrepancy between this conclusion and government's budget.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz has tallied the cost of Bush’s ‘war on terror’. These are his conclusions

The Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz is making waves with a new book, co-authored with fellow economist Linda Bilmes, in which he lays out in stunning detail the cost to America and the rest of the world of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

After three years of research, Stiglitz calculates that the cost to America alone is $3 trillion. As for Britain and the rest of the world, one can assume roughly the same again.

Stiglitz and Bilmes, who both worked as economic advisors to President Clinton, decided to add up the cost of the war after the official Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2005 that the cost so far was approximately $500bn. Neither economist believed it could be that little.

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Jarrett Martineau

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:12 on February 28th, 2008

Not bad at all, that's a net profit of $2.5 billion, so far. Give it a couple of more years and the USofA will be able to buy and spend their way out of that darned recession!