The Ignorant Investor

TOKYO – Japan's government said the cost of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast could reach $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster on record.

That's less than a third of what we've spent in Iraq over the past 8 years. Forget about our war in Afghanistan or our war in Libya. We've been suffering the fiscal equivalent of three giant tsunamis a year every year since 2003. And what can we point to after all that spending? Not new bridges. Not new rail networks. Not a new air traffic control system. Just a broken down, barely functioning nation of 24 million Iraqis with bad plumbing and intermittent electricity. And that's not even considering the cost in lives.