My latest column at the Christian Science Monitor makes the case that defense spending deserves close scrutiny as America evaluates its fiscal priorities. Excerpt: This year the US will spend about $110 billion in Afghanistan and $44 billion in Iraq. Regular defense spending is even larger, at about $550 billion. Military spending will total more [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Defense’
Defense Spending Deserves Close Scrutiny Too
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Debt, Defense, Deficit on April 19, 2011 | 4 Comments »
ABC: First Week in Libya Costs At Least $600 Million
Posted in Budget, tagged Afghanistan, Budget, Defense, Iraq, Libya on March 29, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Over at ABC News, Devin Dwyer and Luis Martinez report that the first week of the U.S. intervention in Libya has cost at least $600 million. According to their sources, the most costly items include 191 Tomahawk cruise missiles – $269 million F-15E fighter – $60 million+ Fuel for jets and ships Other munitions Other [...]
Expeditionary Economics
Posted in International, Macroeconomics, tagged Afghanistan, Defense, Development, Haiti, Iraq on June 20, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The U.S. military is now a major player in economic development. In Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, economic stabilization is a core tenet of its counterinsurgency strategy. Which makes good sense, in theory, but raises a troubling practical question: does the military actually know anything about economic stabilization and development? In a recent essay in [...]
Good Budget Reads
Posted in Budget, Health, International, tagged Afghanistan, Budget, Defense, Deficit, Health on December 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
1. Jeff Frankel tops my National Journal post with nine more ways to trim the deficit. 2. EconomistMom Diane Lim Rogers scores the budget quote of the week: “‘Loosey-goosey’ out, loosey-goosey’ back at ya.“ 3. Bruce Bartlett makes the case for a war tax: “wars financed heavily by higher taxes, such as the Korean War [...]
Follow-up: Defense, Mortgage Modifications, and Yahoo/Microsoft
Posted in Budget, Economy, Finance, Internet, Macroeconomics, Politics, Regulation, Technology, tagged Antitrust, Budget, Defense, Finance, Microsoft, Mortgage, Politics, Search, Yahoo on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This morning’s headlines include some important follow-ups to recent posts: I recently cheered the Obama administration’s success (so far) in fighting off excess spending on the F-22 fighter. However, business-as-usual is still the rule in Washington, as the Washington Post reports that the House will soon vote on a defense appropriations bill that is loaded [...]
A Glimmer of Fiscal Discipline
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Defense, Politics on July 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday delivered a small piece of good news on the budget front. As reported by the Washington Post: The Senate voted Tuesday to kill the nation’s premier fighter-jet program, embracing by a 58 to 40 margin the argument of President Obama and his top military advisers that more F-22s are not needed for the nation’s [...]
Standing Firm on Auto Dealers
Posted in Budget, Politics, Regulation, tagged Auto, Budget, Chrysler, Defense, GM, Politics on July 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Over the past year, the U.S. government has acquired an unprecedented investment portfolio, including a majority stake in GM and a large ownership stake in Chrysler. These investments have raised a plethora of difficult policy challenges. One of the most important is the ongoing risk that private business decisions may get transformed into public policy [...]
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