My latest opinion piece for Reuters has been published and this time, I take a look at the upcoming NATO summit and the difficult maths around increasing defence budgets.
Adam Tooze a few days ago 'Chartbook 389: Europe's zombie armies. Or how to spend $3.1 trillion and have precious little to show for it'
“$3.1 trillion on European defense over a decade ... really? Can you send us the data please.”
The reaction of my editors at the FT to an early draft of my recent op ed on European defense policy was more than understandable. Can it really be true?'
After 2022, Germany managed to get to the famous 2% of GDP hurdle by increasing pensions for retired soldiers. Meanwhile, the main culprit besides higher salaries and pensions for soldiers is the 'Other' spending category, which includes a lot of maintenance spending and civilian installations within military installations (barracks, office buildings, etc.0 Yees, there is precious little to show for it in terms of tanks and arms, but that is changing with Readiness 2030. And unlike tanks, etc., there is definitely a lot to show for it in terms of GDP growth that came out of this increase in military budget, as I show in the Reuters article.
So, the mix was wrong in the past, but since 2022, the mix has been changing in the right direction, though it definitely could go faster.
Adam Tooze a few days ago 'Chartbook 389: Europe's zombie armies. Or how to spend $3.1 trillion and have precious little to show for it'
“$3.1 trillion on European defense over a decade ... really? Can you send us the data please.”
The reaction of my editors at the FT to an early draft of my recent op ed on European defense policy was more than understandable. Can it really be true?'
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-389-europes-zombie-armies
Two questions:
1 What danger?
2 Where's the GDP growth of that 3 T?
Well, there is no secret where that money went. You can download the defence spending of each NATO member on the NATO website: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm
After 2022, Germany managed to get to the famous 2% of GDP hurdle by increasing pensions for retired soldiers. Meanwhile, the main culprit besides higher salaries and pensions for soldiers is the 'Other' spending category, which includes a lot of maintenance spending and civilian installations within military installations (barracks, office buildings, etc.0 Yees, there is precious little to show for it in terms of tanks and arms, but that is changing with Readiness 2030. And unlike tanks, etc., there is definitely a lot to show for it in terms of GDP growth that came out of this increase in military budget, as I show in the Reuters article.
So, the mix was wrong in the past, but since 2022, the mix has been changing in the right direction, though it definitely could go faster.