Minding Your Business: Cost of War on Rise
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Just how big is the bill right now for Iraq and the war on terror? And can the current economy pay for it? Andy Serwer is looking at the numbers today. Who else to mind your business? Good morning.</s>ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Bill. It's a lot of money, and it sounds like a lot with tens of billions of dollars. But, in fact, compared to the overall economy, it's not so huge. The economy can handle it. The question is: Do the American people want to handle it? And, of course, then, there is the question of human lives, which is a whole other matter. Let's take a look and see. Because we had $62 billion previously is the number that's being bandied about as what we were spending on the war. Now, the president announcing he wants another $87 billion. This is in current dollars, so it is adjusted for inflation -- in other words, if you were fighting these wars today. The Persian Gulf War the first time was around only 76 billion. Vietnam many times that, and Korea as well. Then, you go down to World War II, which, you know, I mean, that was just a total effort by the entire nation year after year after year. Now, how about that as a percentage of the overall economy, which is very, very, very important? And when you start talking about that, you can see here, again. Now, the .5 percent is just the 62 billion. When you add the 87, you're going to get over 1 percent, which gets towards the first Gulf War again. OK? Vietnam, big. That had tremendous economic consequences for the United States, as well as Korea. Then, look at World War II, Bill. I mean, this was when we had food rationing and when there were shortages, when the entire country had to rally around. It was a "Rosie the riveter." I mean, it just totally transformed our economy. So, you can see, we're not even close to that. We're not even close to Vietnam. You know, that's not to diminish the, you know, questions about how much money we're spending here. But, you know, just if you look historically, it's not the same kind of deal.</s>HEMMER: It's an amazing perspective, too. Thank you, Andy.</s>SERWER: OK.</s>HEMMER: Next time we'll talk about the markets today.</s>SERWER: We will.</s>HEMMER: All right, good deal.</s>SERWER: OK. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.