Uh, Mac, are you buying lots of things with Euros? I’m not.
Ancient one, I’m sorry that wasn’t clear; that was my point in mentioning it. GDP is, to quote my anonymous economist, a flow, not static. Or in my simple-minded terms, it’s an income-statement item, not a balance sheet item like debt. Well, if we’re going to look at the balance sheet, we should look at both liabilities and assets.
Byron, I’m not arguing that the purpose of the war was to add national wealth. But notice that the slope of the line — the rate of increase — is about the same before 1997 and after 2003. That slope it in some sense the “return on investment” in the national debt. Now, maybe that slope would have been better without the war; it’s just difficult to claim, with that curve in evidence, that it’s hurt much.
