Former Bush Economic Advisor in Iowa

The man who served as chairman of President Bush’s “White House Council of Economic Advisors” for the past two years spoke in Dubuque last night about what effect the war may have on the U-S economy. R. Glenn Hubbard says the prospect of a war has weighed on the economy and discouraged businesses from investing or hiring workers. But he says inaction is very costly to the economy. Hubbard says overall, he doesn’t expect the war to have much effect on the nation’s economy. Hubbard says the war will probably be “quite short” and success in the war, according to Hubbard, will boost the President’s political popularity. Hubbard says many of the large financial costs of the war have already been paid — and he says those costs have nothing to do with buying tanks. He says the cost of the war has been the dip in the nation’s economy as consumers and businesses remained skittish. Hubbard says the U-S has an 11 TRILLION dollar economy, and compared to that, the 80-BILLION dollar supplemental spending request President Bush is expected to make to finance the war is but a drop. Hubbard, who has returned to Columbia University’s economics department, spoke last night at the University of Dubuque.