Bush Thinks $3 Trillion War is Fine for Economy

This is something I wanted to post about last week but just didn't find a moment, so I'm staying up extra late to get it done. Not that it matters, since the cost of the war in Iraq and its obvious effect on our economy won't be going away any time soon.



Back on February 29, 2008, Democracy Now did almost an entire hour with Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz and Professor of public finance at Harvard�s Kennedy School of Government, Linda Bilmes--the authors of the book "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict" (get it from Amazon here: http://snipurl.com/21kf0 ). It seems they've put a rather large price tag on the war and George W. doesn't believe the war is having that big of an effect on the US economy!



Check out the video excerpt from the February 29, 2008 Democracy Now episode (available on ThePete.Com or Utterz.com) to hear these words for yourself or just read them below. Juan Gonzalez, co-host of DN introduces a clip from the "Today" show:



"JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to take an in-depth look at the cost of the Iraq war. Last week, President Bush rejected charges that the war in Iraq has hurt the US economy. He addressed the issue during an interview with Ann Curry on the Today Show.



ANN CURRY: Some Americans believe that they feel they�re carrying the burden because of this economy.



PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, well�



ANN CURRY: The economy, they say, is suffering because of this war.



PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I don�t agree with that.



ANN CURRY: You don�t agree with that? It has nothing to do with the economy, the war, the spending on the war?



PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I don�t think so. I think, actually, the spending on the war might help with jobs.



ANN CURRY: Oh, yeah?



PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, because we�re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses.





JUAN GONZALEZ: While President Bush claimed the war has nothing to do with the economy, one of the country�s leading economists has just published a book that puts an estimated price tag on the war in Iraq. The number may surprise you: $3 trillion.



That�s the estimate calculated by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and his co-author Linda Bilmes. According to the book, the Iraq War has become the second-most expensive war in US history, after World War II."



Pretty crazy, huh? And what a guy--our fearless leader not thinking a war that cost us $3 trillion is going to hurt our economy.



Where do you think all that money came from? Tax payers? Investors in the Fed? I wish. I'm no expert, but I have trolled the Fed's website and done a bit of reading elsewhere. My theory is that they just made the money from nothing. Really, that's what all banks do when they loan out money. It's not their money they're loaning--it's someone else's. The thing is, when you get it, you spend it and it then counts as part of our economy. But if you follow the trail back, it's not your money--so effectively, it's created from nothing.



That's assuming my brain, educated by the American public school system and Spider-Man comics, didn't screw something up. I could easily be missing something and I hope I am. However, it doesn't look like that's the case. What it *does* look like is that we the people are going to need more than just $600 each to make all of our money worth more again.



If I had any money, I'd put it in Euros. :)



To read the transcript from the Democracy Now broadcast, check it out here: http://www.democracynow.org/…dollar_war



You can also check out the entire episode in video or audio form here:

http://www.democracynow.org/…/29/stream



And to pick up the book "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict" and give me a few pennies, buy it through my Amazon link here:



http://snipurl.com/21kf0

Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterz.  Replies.

---

Orignal From: Bush Thinks $3 Trillion War is Fine for Economy