After five years of conflict, the costs of our involvement In Iraq and Afghanistan now total $3 trillion—and counting. In discussing his new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, Joseph E. Stiglitz reveals a litany of costs—the vast majority financed through borrowing—that have been hidden from U.S. taxpayers and will continue to add up in the years ahead.

Stiglitz and his co-author Linda J. Bilmes untangle years of shoddy government accounting, lay bare the facts we need to understand the financial consequences of our involvement in Iraq, as well as its impact on the U.S. economy and the rest of the world. They explain how the war, and soaring oil prices and deficits, have weakened the American economy and how these trillions could have, instead, promoted a more prosperous, safe, and secure United States.