Anytime Niall Ferguson is referenced, especially when he is comparing the spendthriftness of the Spanish Habsburgs on all things military with the current U.S.'s sad state of financial and military affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm all ears.
As for me and my house, we choose butter (preferably on a spoon with a little sugar).
2 comments:
This guy is way off base. What turned the tide in the Great Depression was WWII. War is not a good thing, but the economy, today, will turn as long as their is a Taliban or Al Queada or anyother nefarious group to protect freedom. Do I wish it were different? Yes, definitely...but world and nations will always, today, will be at odds.
That doesn't make any sense. So you're saying the only time we'll have prosperity is if we have a war? With that logic, I must be imagining the past three years of the Great Recession and the four years of war leading up to it.
I think Niall does a fantastic job of showing how military OVERspending leads to the downfall of empires/hegemons/superpowers.
Unfortunately we must spend on the military, but OVERspending on wars of choice doesn't seem like a path we should be continuing down.
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