ECONOMY: The War Economy

Congress and the administration are embroiled in contentious talks over on the details of a $700 billion infusion into the financial system, intended to restore liquidity and maintain the flow of credit. But the talks stalled yesterday. "It was an implosion that spilled out from behind closed doors into public view in a way rarely seen in Washington," the New York Times observed. Tonight, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) are scheduled to debate foreign policy matters in Oxford, MS. While the subject matter seems disconnected from the situation in financial markets, prescient economists predicted this fall-out from the Iraq war long ago. In 2002, Gerd Hausler, director of international capital markets at the IMF, said that "a serious conflict with Iraq would not be a very healthy development" for the financial markets. Robert Shapiro, undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration stated, "If the [Iraq] conflict wears on or, worse, spreads, the economic consequences become very serious." The debt was $5.7 trillion when Bush took office; it will be $10.3 trillion by the time he leaves. While Congress hesitates to appropriate $700 billion for the financial crisis, the administration still is pouring $12 billion a month into Iraq, also raising the question of how the Iraq war funds could be spent better at home.
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http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2008/09/pr20080926