This is unacceptable. We've not had a good war since Iraq and Afghanistan! No, I don't mean winning a war, we've not won one since the 1950s in Korea. I'm talking about our Military Industrial Complex; it's suffering. At the rate we're going Putin is going to wrap things up in the Ukraine and honestly, the Gaza thing may not go the distance.
We need to look for new markets. I mean places where we can "help"...hah. Maybe Taylor Swift can invade somewhere?
BTW, we spend almost $1 trillion dollars each year on defense, more than all other global nations combined. The largest single contributor to congressional campaigns in the defense industry. And what do we get for that? Losing direct or proxy campaigns in places like Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine...blah blah blah and young Americas/allies ground up in the name of freedom? Ouch...that was way to negative.
Sorry, just kidding. Go team!
Defense spending isn't what’s driving the US economy
US weapons sales are growing, but citizen spending is the story
By Tim Fernholz
Oct 30. 2023
The booming US economy, which grew at a 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter of this year, can be credited to Barbenheimer, Taylor Swift, a land new houses—but not cash flowing to the defense sector as the US seeks to arm allies like Ukraine and Israel.
This week, US president Joe Biden asked Congress for an additional $105 billion in funding, mainly to purchase weapons for Ukraine as it attempts to repel a Russian invasion, and for Israel as it responds to Hamas’ attacks earlier this month. It’s not clear if Republicans in Congress will vote for this spending, with some sympathizing with Vladimir Putin and others embracing antisemitic figures.
Defense spending has been rising, but thus far it hasn’t hit the heights we saw during the US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the last year, the US has significantly increased purchases of aircraft, missiles, ammunition, and other equipment, according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The biggest growth in military spending hasn’t come from equipment purchases, but from the cost of supporting US personnel, as service members have been deployed to Europe to reinforce the US commitment to the NATO alliance; those costs had been falling since the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
In the context of this week’s report on US economic production, defense spending added 0.28 percentage points to the 4.9% annualized economic growth. In other words, it was less important to the robust third quarter than American purchases of recreational goods and vehicles.
While the defense business is doing well, it still faces concerns over supply chains to obtain key materials and components for weapons. It also faces economic pressure to consolidate, but without violating anti-trust laws—particularly as the DOD frets about the ability to produce enough weapons. For those reasons, the owners of US defense contractors haven’t seen a major windfall; at least not yet. One ETF that tracks 33 aerospace and defense companies remains below its pre-pandemic heights:
That could change if the Republican party indicates it will support military aid for US allies. But even if the GOP fails to support Ukraine and Israel, that doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity ahead for defense firms. US national security strategists are focused on a potential conflict with China and plan to invest in high-tech weapons and surveillance systems—assuming, of course, growing budgets, and that the US military isn’t dragged into new conflicts in the Middle East.
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