More Collateral damage from the Iraq war
A global recession is imminent
Never fear…Our Commander in chief tells us the economy is strong.
But some actually had it right all along. Some commentary from before we went to war, predicting that a prolonged war in the middle east would lead to a global recession:
Robert Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, 10/2/02:
“If the conflict wears on or, worse, spreads, the economic consequences become very serious. Late last year, George Perry at the Brookings Institution ran some simulations and found that after taking into account a reasonable use of oil reserves, a cut in world oil production of just 6.5 percent a year would send the United States and the world into recession.”
Independent, 11/16/02
“A war against Iraq could cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, play havoc with an already depressed domestic economy and tip the world into recession because of the adverse effect on oil prices, inflation and interest rates, an academic study [by William Nordhaus, Sterling professor of economics at Yale University] has warned.”
CBS MarketWatch, 3/20/03
“If war with Iraq drags on longer than the few weeks or months most are predicting, corporate revenues will be flat for the coming year and will put the U.S. economy at risk of recession, according to a poll of chief financial officers.