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 enlarge | Authors: Joseph E. Stiglitz, Linda J. Bilmes
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $12.25
You Save: $10.70 (47%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 24359
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393067017
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704431
EAN: 9780393067019
ASIN: 0393067017
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Excellent condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
A mixed set of strengths and weaknesses in this passionate attack on the Iraq War April 12, 2008
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winning economist who teaches at Columbia and served on President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors from 1993-1997 and at the World Bank from 1997-2000. Linda Bilmes lectures at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who specializes in budgeting and applied budgeting. Both hate the Bush Administration and the War in Iraq. At least the voice of the book is quite passionate in its railing against it as a disaster and declares other more harsh accusations.
I think this book does three things well. First, it exposes the way government misuses budgeting for political purposes. That is, it always and in every case for every program that it wants to start misrepresents its true costs. The authors limit these accusations to this war, but if you are willing to go look at what was said in every other war and welfare program, similar disingenuousness was on display.
Second, it shows how poorly our country treats its veterans. A national shame that others have spoken of since the Revolutionary War down to present times. And a global tradition of all armies since the first army ever created by man. I hope we heed the calls for caring for the widows and orphans and those who were wounded and maimed in our service. Even if we think we don't have the money to bear these costs, this is an obligation that would justify cuts in other government spending to meet.
Third, I think that exposing the collateral costs of war (not just this war) in terms of opportunity costs, international relations, and the future state of the world is worth considering. Just dashing into a conflict simply because you believe you might be able to beat the enemy militarily quickly isn't really enough is it. You still have to live and work in the world after the war. Of course, not going to war has the same considerations. If you don't show strength in the face of aggression, you invite more of it and what then? When you don't act in the face of genocide (say, Rwanda and Sudan) because they are not strategic countries that also says something about the sincerity of your moral positions as more or less posturing.
However, there are also some things I think the book gets wrong. While I am all for giving the PROJECTED all-in cost of this war, the publicity makes this number seem like a fact and isn't clear until you read the book about how much of the cost is projected out-year costs in caring for veterans and interest on the debt of money borrowed for the war. In fact, the borrowing is for running the government, and putting the interest completely on the one program you don't like is cheating. For example, let's say someone was for the war and against the prescription drug program and they treated the borrowing as if it were for that social program and that the war was funded out of current receipts in order to inflate the projected cost of the program and how unaffordable it was. You would throw a flag on that play, right? Well, it's the same here. Nor are they clear in how much of the cost they bundle in would still be spent on national defense even if we were at peace (including all the out year costs they count in their war model). Plus we were already in Iraq trying to maintain the sanctions and fighting all the associated political battles. How much was that costing us? The authors also don't really cover all the costs associated with 9/11 because Iraq wasn't directly involved in that attack. However, it seems as if we are keeping the terrorists at least somewhat occupied because they haven't managed a major attack here since then. If they did, most of the supposed trillions that could be used for other things would be gone. This should have been addressed in their calculations.
Second, they severely understate the comparison costs of previous wars to make this one sound terribly costly. For example they note on page 6 that there were more than 16 million men under arms in World War II, but say that it cost only $5 trillion in 2007 dollars. This is foolishly low, I believe. Did they really use the same methodology for every facet of that war (including what unleashing the nuclear bomb and the Cold War, the cost of stationing armies in Europe for sixty years, the Veteran's Administration, the cost of NATO, and so forth) as they do for the Iraq War? Or did they just take government figures and adjust them for inflation (which seems more likely).
Third, while they rightly admit that we can afford $3 trillion dollars with our present economy (and rightly complain about the opportunity costs of spending so much money on war), they don't provide a similar context for previous wars. The cost of World War II was much greater as part of the GDP and national treasure, as was the Civil War and so forth. Economics is all about context and to not provide such meaningful comparisons in context is politics more than economics. Again, it is cheating.
Their suggested reforms to the budgetary process for war are interesting, but have only a small chance to be implemented in anything like their presentation in the book. But they make interesting reading, even when you disagree with them (such as reforms 6, 8 and 9, which are really political arguments about this war and could either be irrelevant or deadly in future wars).
If you hate Bush and the war, you will love this book. If you support Bush and the war, you will get angry at this book. However, if you want to take a balanced look at what the authors actually provide, I think you will learn quite a bit about the political views of the authors, a bit about the war and its costs, and get examples of why political arguments make for bad science, even social science.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
 A SIX-STAR BOOK --( with a Caution) April 6, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I'd rate this beautifully organized piece as a six-star book if six were available -- with a cautionary, calculation-related caveat. As past chairman of a large Middle-Eastern languages department for the US Defense Languages Institute (USDLI) on the Virginia side of Washington D.C., I've enough first-hand experience with Arabs, etc., to have profoundly lamented the Bush administration's brashly arrogant ignorance displayed by their invasion of Iraq, followed by the spectacular emptyheadedness of Bush's "Mission accomplished" boast.
So I relate well to the authors' points, most succinctly summarized in their Table 1.1. contrasting the $100 billion initial estimate, the $500 billion operation costs to date, $1400 billion future ops, $2000 billion future veteran-care costs, $2400 billion social costs, $4300 billion macroeconomic costs, $5100 billion current and future interest costs, and another $5700 billion overall for Afghanistan. The authors underscore their contention that the above represent ONLY costs to the USA, not other countries such as our allies, or Iraq itself.
Chapter two documents the above costs to our nation's budget. Chapter three explains the true costs of caring for US veterans. Chapter four outlines costs that the US government does NOT pay. Chapter five expands on the macroeconomic effects of the conflict. Chapter six is an outstanding presentation of the multifaceted global consequences of our Iraq involvement. Chapter seven is an intelligent explanation of the difficulties of exiting Iraq, with suggestions. Chapter eight, "Learning From Our Mistakes," is an outstsnding presentation of eighteen recommended reforms for the future.
Because, after leaving the academic world, I headed two national corporations, I find that I can quibble with the above numbers, though the authors' explanatory comments seem essentially uncontrived in a manipulative sense.
Now for the caveat: Though as I make these comments I don't excuse the outrageous stupidity of our involvement in Iraq, my accountancy experience in running large companies requires that I face the reality of a few unpleasant facts. The authors do not include factors such as the US's (admittedly immoral) economic gains from the war -- such things as employment gains in certain sectors, and war-equipment manufacture shown as national-productivity gains. In other words, there has been income as well as expense in this war, and a more thorough accountancy presentation would have included figures on the income side of the balance sheet. But I repeat, especially for you readers who aren't accountancy-oriented, my comments on this side of the ledger do not excuse the ignorance, the arrogance or the immorality of this war. I'm only pointing out the relatively well known fact that wars do produce economic gains along with costs, and some wars have been waged with the ill-gotten economic benefits in mind.
I also want to reemphasize that I believe the financial costs of this war FAR economically outweigh any narrow income on the other side of the ledger.
Please read and recommend this outstandingly important book.
The Truth About More Than Debt April 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This exceptional book lays out for the reading public what wars really cost. It also lays out explicitly the causes and the effects of this madness and clearly identifies those other costs that are unquantifiable.
Once again Stiglitz, and in this book Bilmes, prove that they not only know how to write a readable book on a tough suibject, but also they know how to collect and stack the facts so that the conclusion is inescapable. No spin here!
Congratulations to both on an outstanding production!
Required Reading for all Politicians April 5, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A bit dry, but considering the topic, it is very good. All politicians should read this book. It gives a very detailed, and sobering, break-down of the current and futures costs of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You will get a picture not illustrated in the national media. I hope this book becomes a reference source for political science classes.
 Sorry to see Stiglitz sell out March 31, 2008
12 out of 30 found this review helpful
As someone who respects Stiglitz's previous work, this was a sad book to read. Stiglitz and Blimes mix fact and fiction throughout the book and lose any credibility on the issue in my opinion.
First, the Iraq war is very expensive in both monetary, budgetary, and non-monetary ways. That makes exaggerating the costs all that more puzzling. Its also true that the government is on a cash basis accounting system and DoD does a poor job of cost accounting, but this is nothing new or specific to the war in Iraq.
Second, beyond the specific details, they include whole categories of costs that make no sense. They then eliminate some of these costs and call their estimate "conservative". That is just crazy and deceitful manipulation.
Third as to some of the larger specific errors:
Interest on the debt. To make a long story short, Interest is a real cost but the way they make their calculations double counts that cost (you work in current costs or future costs but not both). They cknowledge that most economists would not count interest in addition to the current cost (p. 30) but then goes on to add interest on p. 55. It is like saying the cost of a house is both the listed price and the sum off ll future mortgage payments. See the Becker-Posner Blog on March 19, 006.
Cost of other programs not funded. Again this is a double counting. The cost of the war is either how much money goes to the war or what we could have done with the money otherwise, not both.
The costs due to oil being more expensive. This is sheer guess work with no foundation. Also, the UN sanctions that prevented Iraq from selling oil (which presumably would still be in place if there was no war) is probably more expensive in this sense.
In sum, I am sorry I contributed to propaganda through purchasing a book. They do get small credit for making us think about the large cost of the war and the nonmonetary costs. But when the facts are on your side exaggerating only hurts your credibility.
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