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.
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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
