----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:21 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Israel's Roaring Economy (correct link)
>
> On Jun 22, 2007, at 10:47 AM, Jonathan Nitzan wrote:
>
> > The relationship between U.S. military spending as a share of GDP and
> > U.S. GDP growth is shown here:
> > http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/specials/image0608big/cwfig1_large_html
>
> Maybe this is a short-term observation - an occupational hazard of
> covering Wall Street - but the relation seems to have broken down
> after 1990. The military share fell during the Clinton years and
> growth rose; the reverse has been true in the Bush years. I wonder if
> this has anything to do with the composition of military spending,
> which is decreasingly about mass-produced industrial goods (which
> presumably have a higher multiplier) and increasingly about
> specialized high-tech gear, R&D, and purchased services (with
> presumably lower multipliers).
>
> Doug
But even after the 50s it looks rather tenuous. Sometimes with little relation and sometimes lagging the cycle. With Clinton in went counter and bush pro cyclical.