One of the things I consistently hear from friends and family who read my mind dribblings is that they read everything except for the "boring stuff" about politics and government.  Invariably they say something like "I’m just not as into it as you are" which is fair since I’m interested in lots of boring things, including my navel.  Still, it got me to thinking that maybe I need to be a little more entertaining when I write about that stuff since so here goes my first try:

Today’s topic: War and Money

Important takeaway: We’ve spent a buttload of money on the war in Iraq and it’s not ending any time soon.

Interesting hook: Some folks are putting a $1.2 Trillion price tag on the war, but back in 2003 when one of the Bush administration’s economists predicted the war might end up costing us about $100-200 billion dollars he was canned. The other administration estimates at the time were closer to $60 billion which means they were only off by, oh, $1.14 trillion.

Entertainment Value: Think about what $1.2 Trillion could buy.  If I were writing my typical, boring, wonky stuff I’d write about all the teachers it could pay for, doctors it could provide, yada, yada, yada.  But for fun lets look at the number of the following that you could purchase:

• 2007 Maybach at $335,000 per car: 3,576,751
• $200,000 house: 6,000,000
• Students to attend Harvard @ $43,655 (tuition, room & fees): 27,488,260
• You could buy Wachovia Bank at its current $96.59 billion market cap 12 times over.
• Ping Rapture Drivers at $429 per: 2,797,202,797
• 2007 New York Yankees payroll ($195,229,045) could be paid 6,147 times.

Man that’s a lot of spare change.  Now, if you want to talk about real money take a look at what Fec’s pointing to re. the coming crisis due to the healthcare and retirement costs of the aging (finally) baby boomers. 

Boring? Yes.  Important? Hell yes.