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Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers Podcast
How to measure the true cost of war: Justin Wolfers shows you the math | Diving In

$How to measure the true cost of war: Justin Wolfers shows you the math | Diving In$

How to measure the true cost of war: Justin Wolfers shows you the math | Diving In

Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers vor 3 Monaten

0:00

17:50

The Pentagon said the war with Iran has cost Americans $25
billion. But that number only accounts for missiles fired and
equipment destroyed. The true cost of war is measured by the
future we’ve given up. In this video — my Director’s Cut of an
Op-Ed I wrote last week for the New York Times — I explain why
that figure is dangerously misleading and show you the math for a
less precise, but far more honest answer.

Using the economic concept of opportunity cost, I walk through
six methods for calculating the war’s real price tag, tracing the
clues through oil, interest rates, geopolitical risk, the stock
market, GDP, and future defense budgets. Each of these prove that
this war is not costing tens of billions — but hundreds of
billions, and quite possibly trillions.

Every number answers a question, and the Pentagon's $25 billion
answers a very small one. Here, I'm asking the bigger one:
compared to the world we had before this war, what have we lost?
The answer should concern every American household.

NYT Op-Ed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/opinion/hegseth-war-cost.html

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