"Building the Military-Industrial Economy"

"Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the dogs of war."
- William Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar" III, 1

"Raw Story argues that the U.S. is building a largely military economy*: The use of the military-industrial complex as a quick, if dubious, way of jump-starting the economy is nothing new, but what is amazing is the divergence between the military economy and the civilian economy, as shown by this "New York Times" chart:

Click image for larger size.

In the past nine years, non-industrial production in the US has declined by some 19 percent. It took about four years for manufacturing to return to levels seen before the 2001 recession - and all those gains were wiped out in the current recession.

By contrast, military manufacturing is now 123 percent greater than it was in 2000 - it has more than doubled while the rest of the manufacturing sector has been shrinking. It's important to note the trajectory - the military economy is nearly three times as large, proportionally to the rest of the economy, as it was at the beginning of the Bush administration. And it is the only manufacturing sector showing any growth. Extrapolate that trend, and what do you get? The change in leadership in Washington does not appear to be abating that trend..."

- http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/09/krugman-most-economists-including-nobel.html
*http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/is-america-building-a-purely-military-economy/

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