Newsweek: Iraq economy booming! In a way. Sort of.

Some war-hungry Web sites (the kind that use terms like “Islamonazi” repeatedly) are hailing this as great news:

From Newsweek:

Blood and Money

In what might be called the mother of all surprises, Iraq’s economy is growing strong, even booming in places.

By Silvia Spring
Newsweek International

Dec. 25, 2006 – Jan. 1, 2007 issue – It may sound unreal, given the daily images of carnage and chaos. But for a certain plucky breed of businessmen, there’s good money to be made in Iraq.

Civil war or not, Iraq has an economy, and—mother of all surprises—it’s doing remarkably well. Real estate is booming. Construction, retail and wholesale trade sectors are healthy, too, according to a report by Global Insight in London.

Wow..Booming, eh?

Estimates vary, but one from Global Insight puts GDP growth at 17 percent last year and projects 13 percent for 2006. The World Bank has it lower: at 4 percent this year. But, given all the attention paid to deteriorating security, the startling fact is that Iraq is growing at all.

Yeah, startling.

How? Iraq is a crippled nation growing on the financial equivalent of steroids, with money pouring in from abroad.

Umm, that’s good, right?

Iraq’s problems are daunting, to say the least. Unemployment runs between 30 and 50 percent.

Ok, that’s not quite so good.

Many former state industries have all but ceased to function. As for all that money flowing in, much of it has gone to things that do little to advance the country’s future. Security, for instance, gobbles up as much as a third of most companies’ operating budgets, whereas what Iraq really needs are hospitals, highways and power-generating plants.

You know, this is sort of sounding like how the U.S. economy is booming, also.

There’s even a positive spin to be put on corruption. Money stolen from government coffers or siphoned from U.S. aid projects does not just disappear. Again, says Farid Abolfathi, a Global Insight analyst, it’s the “trickledown” effect. Such “underground activity” is the most dynamic part of Iraq’s economy, he says. “It might not be viewed as respectable. But in reality, that’s what puts money in the hands of the little people.”

Seems like Newsweek has gonme the extra mile when it comes to positive spinning. Combine this story with Newsweeks’ hiding of the Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain poll numbers, and you wonder what’s going on over there.

I guess the silver lining is supposed to be this: Sure, Iraq is a hellhole, but the war profiteers haven’t left yet, so it can’t be that bad.

–WKW

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