Linda Bilmes, expert in budgeting and public finance at Harvard's Kennedy School, discusses the true cost of the Iraq conflict, as calculated in her new book, co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. What expense items have been hidden from American taxpayers? What future costs does war entail? What trade-offs does the cost of war impose on the U.S. economy?
Professor Linda J. Bilmes is a full-time faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches budgeting, applied budgeting and public finance. She is a faculty affiliate of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Rappaport Center for Greater Boston. At Harvard, Bilmes runs an innovative program to assist local cities and towns with their financial health, leading teams of student volunteers who work in the communities. She also conducts the Harvard Institute of Politics budgeting workshops for newly-elected Mayors and Members of Congress. Bilmes is widely considered one of the leading experts in US budgeting and public finance. She has held senior positions in government, including Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of Commerce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration, and US Representative to several high-ranking commissions, including a Treasury Department commission to examine the viability of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. She currently serves on the National Parks Second Century Commission. Bilmes is co-author (with Joseph Stiglitz) of the New York Times bestseller *The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict* (Norton 2008) and co-author (with W. Scott Gould) of *The People Factor: Strengthening America by Investing in Public Service* (Brookings). She has written extensively on financial and budgetary issues in newspapers, magazines and academic journals including *the New York Times*, *Washington Post*, *Financial Times*, *Los Angeles Times*, *Boston Globe*, *Atlantic Monthly*, *Foreign Policy*, *Harpers* and *the Milken Review*. Bilmes holds a BA and MBA from Harvard University.