Where to invade next
Econ4 does not accept advertising dollars. And we don’t promote commercial ventures. But for the first time ever, we’re making this exception (free promotion – still no dollars) for Michael Moore’s latest film. It debuts in theaters on Feb. 12.
Opportunity cost
Quiz 4 the day: Who said this?
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Answer: President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.
Bonus question: What was his political party?
Quoted in Jill Lepore’s short history of the military-industrial complex in this week’s New Yorker. Read it here.
U.S. Defense Department budget since WW2
Food for thought from the National Priorities Project:
As the chart below shows, current defense spending levels – even without funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – are higher than at any time since World War II when adjusted for inflation.