Epstein Secrets

ion. Clearly a triumph of forgetting. "It's really the decision of how to pay for it that has had such a negative effect on the U.S. economy," said Linda Bilmes, lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and co- author, along with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, of The Three Trillion D

ussed than the ongoing costs of the war are the opportunity costs -- the many things we might have spent that money on instead. In 2010, Bilmes and Stiglitz wrote that not only was their $3 trillion estimate of the war's cost too low, but so was their estimation of the opportunity costs: The Iraq war did

on. Clearly a triumph of forgetting. "It's really the decision of how to pay for it that has had such a negative effect on the U.S. economy," said Linda Bilmes, lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and co-author, along with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, of The Three Trillion D

ussed than the ongoing costs of the war are the opportunity costs -- the many things we might have spent that money on instead. In 2010, Bilmes and Stiglitz wrote that not only was their $3 trillion estimate of the war's cost too low, but so was their estimation of the opportunity costs: The Iraq war di

ec. 30, and continues to climb. Where do those higher numbers come from? Front a fascinating paper by Nobel Prize economist Jo- seph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. who specializes in budget analysis. -The Economic Costs of the Iraq War" can be accessed at www.nberorg/ papers/w120S4 and is written in ordina

ttention span, he woukl notice a few things. The CI3O, using that 2015 date, estimated the full cost at $500 bil- lion. Why a discrepancy with ME Stiglitz and Ms. Bilmes? The CBO didn't include the lifetime health care and disability payments for returning veterans, replacement of military hardware