DD: Yer thinking too much like a macroeconomist here, MBS. On the absolute dollar cost of the military budget, you may be right. But nobody's going to get rich selling uniforms and soup cans to the Army -- too low margin.
mbs: Charles suggested JFK was whacked because he threatened defense contractor profits by supporting a nuclear test ban. I pointed out that the lack of nukes could expand the defense budget rather than reduce. This would include the high profit- margin R&D component, of which nukes are only a part. It would also include the much larger, low-profit margin procurement to which you allude. Since the numbers for this are classified, my point as to its shakiness as an explanation holds up.