Commentary | Economic Growth  The War’s Other Shoe | EPI
Viewpoints  Share this page:  Opinion pieces and speeches by EPI
staff and associates.   The War’s Other Shoe  By Josh Bivens
and  Christian Weller  During the war in Iraq, airwaves hummed
with pundits waging their own preemptive strike, trying to
predict whether war would help or harm the U.S. economy. Answers
to some of the most-asked questions are in. Would the war set
off a rise in oil prices? Apparently not. Would the additional
spending help boost growth enough to lower unemployment? Not
yet.  The answer to a more complex question will take longer,
and it could spell the most economic trouble for the United
States and the world. How will U.S. unilateralism before and
during the war play out now? That question carries the greatest
potential fallout for the dollar and other currencies and the
economies they are linked to. It is the war’s other shoe, and it
hasn’t dropped yet.  The rancorous prewar debate and the hard
feelings left in its wake are li