There may be a way to charitably interpret the following wall street journal Statement in the report on Mr. Putin’s dismissal of the Minister of Defense (“Russian President Putin replaces defense minister due to security reform,” May 12, 2014):
Military spending has soared from 2.6% before the war to more than 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, driving much of the country’s economic growth and helping it weather the impact of Western sanctions. Factories producing artillery shells and tanks are working multiple shifts to cope, boosting employment and wages.
Russian government propaganda makes similar claims.
You can’t doubt it, of course, except for pure propaganda. WSJ The most obvious interpretation of is Keynesianism with a vengeance. It is believed that increased military spending and the destruction of military capital goods (and soldiers) promotes economic growth compared to what would otherwise be the case. You may wonder, then, why North Korea’s ruler’s military spending does not promote North Korea’s high economic growth. And if, instead of 6% of Russia’s GDP, the government had spent 100% of it on military pursuits, that is, devoted all the resources of the country to wars and war preparations, wouldn’t there have been further economic growth? Is it? as a result? I explored this alchemical mystery in another EconLog post, “His SGZ as a Recipe for Economic Growth.”
The emergence of Russia’s new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov as an economist adds an ingredient to the alchemical mix.according to ReutersBelousov graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University in 1981. Anyone who claims to be an economist, fortunately, at least in free countries, is not a profession that requires government certification, although it does require a degree from Moscow State University.The communist era was not the best genuine Demonstration of mastery of economic analysis tools. As I have suggested before, economists who take economics seriously cannot serve long in a totalitarian state.And Belosov teeth Apparatchik who has been active for a long time.
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A warning about the featured image in this article, the work of DALL-E and your humble blogger: It suggests that economics is about money, which it actually isn’t.
https://www.econlib.org/the-alchemy-of-military-expenditure/