The Iraqi Economy

Every week or so I hear on the local radio station an "Operation Update" from a Captain Marcus Fisk on how things are going in Iraq from a guy who is in Iraq. It's one of those propaganda type things the military does to keep up public support for their operations.

I found his report this morning a little strange. In it, he spent the majority of his time parroting the writings of Larry Kudrow from last week's Newsweek. Why does a guy in Iraq have to read Newsweek to tell us about all the great things happening right outside his door?

If you're unfamiliar with Kudrow's last column, he basically went on and on about how great the economy is in Iraq. That's not quite true. From this week's Newsweek:

A recent study by economist Colin Rowat at the University of Birmingham revealed that if you factor out foreign aid, Iraq's GNP is actually $27 billion less than it should be because of the war.

In fairness to Kudrow, he did write that foreign aid is propping up the Iraqi economy, but to say thing are booming when their stand alone GNP is short $27 billion is ridiculous.