Well Lookee Here... No Wonder We Have Endless War... (In Case You Missed This...)

[WillyT]

Syria-to-Ukraine Wars Send U.S. Defense Stocks to Records
By Richard Clough - Bloomberg
Sep 25, 2014 6:47 AM PT



<snip>

Led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the biggest U.S. defense companies are trading at record prices as shareholders reap rewards from escalating military conflicts around the world.

Investors see rising sales for makers of missiles, drones and other weapons as the U.S. hits Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Chicago-based BMO Private Bank. President Barack Obama approved open-ended airstrikes this month while ruling out ground combat.

“As we ramp up our military muscle in the Mideast, there’s a sense that demand for military equipment and weaponry will likely rise,” said Ablin, who oversees $66 billion including Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) and Boeing Co. (BA) shares. “To the extent we can shift away from relying on troops and rely more heavily on equipment -- that could present an opportunity.”

Bombardments of Islamic State strongholds added to tensions this year that include U.S.-led sanctions on Russia for backing Ukrainian rebels and China’s feuds with neighbors over disputed South China Sea islands. The U.S. also is the biggest foreign military supplier to Israel, which waged a 50-day offensive against the Hamas Islamic movement in the Gaza Strip.

A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of the four largest Pentagon contractors -- excluding Boeing, whose civilian airplanes business is larger than its military unit -- rose 19 percent this year through yesterday, outstripping the 2.2 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Industrials Index.

Lockheed, the world’s biggest defense company, reached an all-time high of $180.74 on Sept. 19, when Northrop, Raytheon Co. (RTN) and General Dynamics Corp. (GD) also set records. That quartet and Chicago-based Boeing accounted for about $105 billion in federal contract orders last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Government.

“There’s no doubt the world is getting to be a more and more dangerous place, and there are countries around the world” that could look to buy aircraft and artillery, Jeff Babione, deputy manager of Lockheed’s F-35 Lightning II program, said in an interview in Oslo. “There’s a sense that there’s less stability in the world than there was before.”

<snip>

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-25/syria-to-ukraine-wars-send-u-s-defense-stocks-to-records.html

[Oilwellian]

1. And Congress makes a handsome profit

Members of Congress Get Abnormally High Returns From Their Stocks

"In the course of performing their normal duties, members of Congress have access to non-public information that could have a substantial impact on certain businesses, industries or the economy as a whole. If used as the basis for common stock transactions, such information could yield significant personal trading profits," they wrote.

At the same time, House rules don't require them to divest themselves of common stocks when they assume office, don't prevent them from trading freely while in office -- and don't require them to recuse themselves from votes that could affect their own interests.

The House ethics manual clearly states that "all Members, officers, and employees are prohibited from improperly using their official positions for personal gain" and members must disclose their holdings annually.

But the House's official position is that demanding that members either divest themselves of potential conflicts or recuse themselves when there is a conflict is "impractical or unreasonable" because it "could result in the disenfranchisement of a Member's entire constituency on particular issues."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/members-of-congress-get-a_n_866387.html

[WillyT]

2. And Thank You For That Important Reminder !!!

[packman]

3. And photos like the one posted

brings it all down to a video game. If I had my way, war photos would be up close and personal with the carnage war brings.

[Octafish]

4. The Pitfalls of Peace

Last edited Fri Oct 10, 2014, 12:28 PM - Edit history (1)

The Lack of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth

Tyler Cowen
The New York Times, JUNE 13, 2014

The continuing slowness of economic growth in high-income economies has prompted soul-searching among economists. They have looked to weak demand, rising inequality, Chinese competition, over-regulation, inadequate infrastructure and an exhaustion of new technological ideas as possible culprits.

An additional explanation of slow growth is now receiving attention, however. It is the persistence and expectation of peace.

The world just hasn’t had that much warfare lately, at least not by historical standards. Some of the recent headlines about Iraq or South Sudan make our world sound like a very bloody place, but today’s casualties pale in light of the tens of millions of people killed in the two world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Even the Vietnam War had many more deaths than any recent war involving an affluent country.

Counterintuitive though it may sound, the greater peacefulness of the world may make the attainment of higher rates of economic growth less urgent and thus less likely. This view does not claim that fighting wars improves economies, as of course the actual conflict brings death and destruction. The claim is also distinct from the Keynesian argument that preparing for war lifts government spending and puts people to work. Rather, the very possibility of war focuses the attention of governments on getting some basic decisions right — whether investing in science or simply liberalizing the economy. Such focus ends up improving a nation’s longer-run prospects.

It may seem repugnant to find a positive side to war in this regard, but a look at American history suggests we cannot dismiss the idea so easily. Fundamental innovations such as nuclear power, the computer and the modern aircraft were all pushed along by an American government eager to defeat the Axis powers or, later, to win the Cold War. The Internet was initially designed to help this country withstand a nuclear exchange, and Silicon Valley had its origins with military contracting, not today’s entrepreneurial social media start-ups. The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite spurred American interest in science and technology, to the benefit of later economic growth.

War brings an urgency that governments otherwise fail to summon. For instance, the Manhattan Project took six years to produce a working atomic bomb, starting from virtually nothing, and at its peak consumed 0.4 percent of American economic output. It is hard to imagine a comparably speedy and decisive achievement these days.

SNIP...

Living in a largely peaceful world with 2 percent G.D.P. growth has some big advantages that you don’t get with 4 percent growth and many more war deaths. Economic stasis may not feel very impressive, but it’s something our ancestors never quite managed to pull off. The real questions are whether we can do any better, and whether the recent prevalence of peace is a mere temporary bubble just waiting to be burst.

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/upshot/the-lack-of-major-wars-may-be-hurting-economic-growth.html?_r=0

[WillyT]

5. Thank You For That !!!

[Octafish]

17. Tyler Cowen may be spelling it out for us, WillyT...

Tired Of Inequality? One Economist Says It'll Only Get Worse

by NPR STAFF
September 12, 2013 3:05 AM

Economist Tyler Cowen has some advice for what to do about America's income inequality: Get used to it. In his latest book, Average Is Over, Cowen lays out his prediction for where the U.S. economy is heading, like it or not:

"I think we'll see a thinning out of the middle class," he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. "We'll see a lot of individuals rising up to much greater wealth. And we'll also see more individuals clustering in a kind of lower-middle class existence."

It's a radical change from the America of 40 or 50 years ago. Cowen believes the wealthy will become more numerous, and even more powerful. The elderly will hold on to their benefits ... the young, not so much. Millions of people who might have expected a middle class existence may have to aspire to something else.

SNIP...

Some people, he predicts, may just have to find a new definition of happiness that costs less money. Cowen says this widening is the result of a shifting economy. Computers will play a larger role and people who can work with computers can make a lot. He also predicts that everyone will be ruthlessly graded — every slice of their lives, monitored, tracked and recorded.

CONTINUED with link to the audio...

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/12/221425582/tired-of-inequality-one-economist-says-itll-only-get-worse

[jtuck004]

7. Uh, more like "The Lack of Enough Effort and Thought Applied to the Problem", not a reliance on an

outdated and inefficient means for a few to make money is the real problem.

[Octafish]

14. That's why the New Frontier.

The peaceful exploration of space was the best thing to happen to jobs in history. At its peak, 400,000 Americans were employed in the Apollo Project.



Imagine if President Kennedy had lived, where the nation would be today? I believe, if we could figure out how to the moon and back, we could face any problem on earth and solve it -- from ending hunger, poverty and ignorance to creating a lasting peace.

Problems today's GOP considers intractable (see Poppy Bush inaugural "More will than Wallet&quot such as joblessness, poverty, crime, would be tackled, instead of ignored, like they've done with public education. And the treasures accumulated since would be used to make life better for everybody on earth instead of sitting in a secret Swiss bank account.

But, no. The conservatives killed the New Deal after LBJ and the Great Society. For the space program, it started with Nixon. Instead, they gave the store away to War Inc, who sank the national treasure into the "Money trumps peace" crowd.

[grahamhgreen]

12. Sad thing is that spending the same monies on renewables would have the same result even better

[Octafish]

13. For the cost of Iraq War, we could've built National 100% Renewable Clean Energy Grid.

I kid you not.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/for-the-price-of-the-iraq-war-the-u-s-could-have-a-100-renewable-power-system/5330881

[grahamhgreen]

18. And all those plans would be generating cheap clean energy

[Voice for Peace]

16. ++++

[Cleita]

28. Been reading Upton Sinclair's "Oil" lately.

In a hundred years nothing has changed other than we now have computers. The same exploiters and takers are there. The same workers who believe in an honest days work and that they aren't owed anything by the ownership class. It's their fault if they don't know how to make money. The same religious attitudes for the politicians to take advantage of. The same wars of expoloiiting nations in distress to protect industrial interests. The same political corruption, briberies and blackmails.

I mean you could change a few dates, names and places and the events are no different than what is happening today, a century later.

[Octafish]

32. Thank you for the heads-up on Sinclair and the black gold, Cleita!

I will add it to my must-read list. The mineral extraction industries are a time-honored way of making a buck without having to make a thing -- all one needs is a source, a "springhead," and a container and something to move it to where the buyer is.



I once read that annual petroleum sales exceed the budgets of all the world's governments combined. While I can't find a source for that online, I did do some quick reckoning on one country that proved so important to American and world history of the last 32 years, Kuwait:

Daily oil production: 2.65 million barrels

Price of oil: $125 per barrel

Daily sales: $325 million

Annual sales: $120,906,250,000 or about $121 billion, which is close to Kuwait's total GDP of about $150 billion.

That's a lot of moolah for a few Kuwaiti "royals" to enjoy. I wonder what the BFEE's cut is?

[Cleita]

33. It's loosely based on how the Doheny family made their fortune

in oil in So. CA. It also delves into the politics and world events of those times, which as I said seem not much different than today. Since this is my home turf I'm familiar with the euphemisms he uses, like calling Los Angeles, Angel City, Hearst Castle, The Monastery and Taft, Paradise. Not to be missed is Exxon Oil renamed Excelsior Oil.

just a little aside. I interviewed for a job with the Doheny Holding Company in Beverly Hills years ago. The head hunter was very coy as to whom I was being sent to and only gave me an address and name I was supposed to contact there. The company was in a three story office building on a side street.

I was taken to an office, given the requisite tests to prove I knew my business and then I was interviewed. It was only then I was told that the whole three story office building housed all the worker bees that kept track of the private Doheny family fortune. She informed me that the money holdings were so vast that they had to do a daily trial balance to keep track of it.

I didn't get the job but I thought it was fascinating that anybody could be that rich even though I had spent a lifetime as a worker bee for very wealthy people.

[Initech]

6. I've said it before and I'll say it again - fuck you military industrial complex!!!

Fuck you Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, KBR, Tyco, Blackwater, and Halliburton. Fuck you and your endless wars profit sucking our country dry. I hope you sleep easy at night knowing you send our troops to die to line your pocket books. Did I say "fuck you" already?

[grahamhgreen]

10. Wait what are you trying to say???

[Enthusiast]

8. ...

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[grahamhgreen]

9. Every time a bomb is dropped someone makes money

[WinkyDink]

11. NS, S! War Materiel 'R' US.

[WillyT]

19. Evening Kick !!!

[Caretha]

20. Where is the regular rabble

telling us what pathetic Democrats we are?

I think the talking points to counter the OP are probably a bit thin...what do you think?

[WillyT]

21. Watching The Kansas City Royals...

[awoke_in_2003]

22. War is ALWAYS about money. nt

[WillyT]

23. War Is A Racket...

War Is A Racket
By Major General Smedley Butler

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

[awoke_in_2003]

24. Yep, he had it right. nt

[WillyT]

25. Yes He Did...

Foiled the plot to kill FDR too...

[villager]

27. 20 years later, the same basic group was able to finally bring down a sitting Democratic President..

...however.

Our "Death Eaters" play the long game.

[villager]

26. In Harry Potter, these were the "Death Eaters"

And there was a life-and-death struggle with them to save the world.

[arcane1]

29. Imagine that.

[grasswire]

30. the love of money is the root of all evil

come on, karma. come on!

[Principled Peter]

31. War is the Precious

[AzDar]

34. "We'll be fighting in the street, with our children at our feet, and the morals that they worship...

will be gone.
And the men who spurred us on,
sit in judgment of all wrong...
They decide, and the shotgun sings the song..."