by Joseph Stiglitz
War is widely thought to be linked to economic good times. . . .
Today, we know that this is nonsense. The 1990s boom showed that
peace is economically far better than war. The Gulf war of 1991
demonstrated that wars can actually be bad for an economy. That
conflict contributed mightily to the onset of the recession of 1991
. . .
Investments in education, health, research, and the environment will
almost inevitably be crowded out. Accordingly, war will be
unambiguously bad in terms of what really counts: ordinary people's
standard of living.
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Joseph Stiglitz is professor of economics and finance at Columbia
University, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, and
author of Globalization and its Discontents. He was formerly
chairman of the council of economic advisers to President Clinton
and chief economist at the World Bank.
