The three trillion dollar war : the true cost of the Iraq Conflict

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Title:

Author:

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

ISBN:

9781846141287

Personal Author:

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

London : Allen Lane/Penguin, c2008.

Physical Description:

viii, 311 p. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

Is it really three trillion? -- The costs to the nation's budget -- The true cost of caring for our veterans -- Costs of the war that the government doesn't pay -- The macroeconomic effects of the war -- Global consequences -- Exiting Iraq -- Learning from our mistakes : reforms for the future.

Abstract:

"The Iraq War is now America's most expensive conflict since World War II. Prewar estimates projected a cost of some $50 billion, but America has already spent close to a trillion dollars, and there are hundreds of billions of bills still due - including staggering costs to take care of the thousands of injured veterans, providing them with disability benefits and health care. And the meter is still ticking."

"In contrast with previous wars - where taxes were raised to pay for increased government spending - as America went into the current conflict, taxes were reduced. As a result, the war has been financed by borrowing, adding to our already-enormous national debt. In this sobering study, Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and the Kennedy School of Government's Linda J. Bilmes reveal a wide range of costs that have been hidden from U.S. taxpayers and left out of the debate about our involvement in Iraq. The authors conservatively estimate that the total cost of the war will be more than $3 trillion."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Iraq War, 2003- -- Finance -- United States.

War -- Economic aspects -- United States.

War -- Economic aspects -- Iraq.

Added Author:

Bilmes, Linda.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025435054	956.704431 S855T 2008	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The $3 Trillion War will be a devastating reckoning of the true cost of the Iraq war - quite apart from its tragic human toll - which the Bush administration has estimated at $50 billion, but which Stiglitz and Bilmes will show underestimates the real figure by approximately six times. The authors expose the gigantic expenses which have so far not been officially accounted for, including not only big ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans - for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global perspective, the authors investigate the cost in lives and damage within Iraq and the Middle East generally. With chilling precision, they calculate what the money spent on the war would have produced had it been further invested in the growth of the economy, in the US and around the world, and in infrastructure building. Stiglitz and Bilmes write in simple language, which makes the details they present, and the sums they add up, all the more disturbing.

This book will change forever the way we think about the Iraq war - and about the cost of war generally.