Past Event
The Impact of the Iraq War on the U.S. Economy
Thursday, 5 March 2009, 7:30 p.m.
This year’s Steinhardt Lecture in Economics will feature Linda Bilmes, Professor of Economics Kennedy School, Harvard University.
Apart from its tragic human toll, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been, and will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. Author of The Three Trillion Dollar War (with Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz), Bilmes will speak on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peace time rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans - for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, she will discuss the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. Professor bilmes will focus on what the U.S. taxpayer’s money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Bilmes’ research has changed the way we think about the war.
The event will take place in Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber.
