...weapons monopoly." Cold war and after During cold war days, the United States did have a major competitor. For instance, the Congressional Research Service's data for 1990, the last year of the Soviet Union's existence, shows global weapons sales totaling $32.7 billion, with the United States accounting for $12.1 billion of that or 37% of the market. For its part, the Soviet Union was responsible for a competitive $10.7 billion in deals inked that year. France, China, and the United Kingdom accounted for most of the rest. However in 2008, according to report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), $55.2 billion in weapons deals were concluded worldwide. Of that total, the United States was responsible for $37.8 billion in weapons sales agreements, or 68.4% of the total "trade." US agreements with all of its customers include not only sales of very costly major weapons systems, but also the upgrading and the support of systems previously provided. The arms agreements involving a wide variety of items such as spare parts, ammunition, ordnance, training, and support services can have significant costs associated with them. 2008 Global Weapons Trade When one nation accounts for nearly 70% of weapons sales, the term "global arms trade" should effectively be replaced by Global Weapons Monopoly. Foundation for Monopoly – Military spending It starts with technology. The United States has a budget for military research and development, for developing...
Words: 1602 - Pages: 7
...crap. We have people out there busting their ass everyday for what? I understand that the economy is down right now but the government is not going anywhere. This freeze has hit me in a bad way. It's like no matter if I work hard or don't work at all, I'm still going to getting the same pay. There is no incentive for me to go out and try to get better at what I do. But I'm not like that because I have pride in what I do. It's just knowing that my pay is going to be the same until the freeze is lifted. The House Appropriations Committee last week approved the bill, which was silent on whether to allocate funds for a federal civilian pay boost. President Obama recommended a 0.5 percent pay boost for federal workers in his fiscal 2013 budget request. The civilian pay raise provision is frequently included in the financial services appropriations bill, which requisitions funds for several federal agencies. (Palleschi, P. (2012). Really what is a .5% pay raise going to do? That won't even pay the taxes on the money I make extra. I just don't believe what they are doing. We have contractors that work where I work doing the same thing I'm doing and making almost $9 more an hour than I am. It's funny how these contractors can go in and want so much for their contracts and the government pays it but can't even give their own employees pay raises every year. Do you think the contractors don't get pay raises? Sure they do every year, on top of...
Words: 701 - Pages: 3
...On April until June, the treasury will analysis and examine the federal budget expenditure which had been prepared by each agency. In the first month which is in April the Budget Review Officer with representatives from Economic Planning Unit and Public Service Department will conducting Preliminary Hearing about budget process. In this step, they only discuss about policies and issues of a general nature. It is also purposely to check budget proposals with policy directives. As for next two months, they would hold a Budget Hearing. This Budget Hearing is conduct on May and June. The main purpose of Budget Hearing is to examine the request of the staff by the Public Service Department. In addition to that, Budget Hearing also ensuring that annual budget proposal conforms to the five years development plan. Other than that, the purpose is to consider the physical as well as financial performance for past years and look at the government financial position and New Economic Policy objectives. Next month, consolidation of the federal budget expenditure would be conducted by treasury. On August to September, in order to make an approval by Ministry of Finance and Cabinets for the federal budget expenditure, the dialogue session will be conducted. They will consider on every significant business and group community. This dialogue will be last for last two weeks and cover consultation with Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), Economic Association of Malaysia, Consumer...
Words: 328 - Pages: 2
...U.S. Military Spending and its impact on the Economy’s GDP Matthew Magana Abstract This paper examines whether increases in military spending have a positive or negative impact on the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The paper focuses on the three North American economies: Canada, Mexico and the United States as models to develop a case. It will also illustrate the utilization of multiple economic tools to produce variable outcomes to analyze the full spectrum of economics. It will also discuss the multiple statistical models such as Granger causality and Vector autoregression and the asymmetric results produced. Increased U.S. Military Spending and its impact on the Economy Given the long-accepted, theoretical direct relationship between investment and economic growth, if defense spending has a negative impact on investment, then it would seem reasonable that defense spending would have an adverse impact on economic growth. This was exactly the findings of two studies published in the seventies, zymanski (1973) and Lee (1973). Some studies attribute the negative effect of defense spending on economic growth to reduced investment. Another study argues that defense spending restricts export growth and economic growth because military expenditures compete for the same resources used in the production of exports. Which may also be a understood trade off for military spending vs. export and economic growth. However, other studies were unable to find any stable...
Words: 1973 - Pages: 8
...M E M O R A N D U M TO: Gail B. Wright, DBA, CPA FROM: Sara Torocco and Rexhina Elezi RE: Federal Budget Proposals DATE: October 2, 2012 This memorandum analyzes the federal budget proposals currently being debated. Detailed information related to the components of budgets is also provided. Focusing mostly on the issue of Medicare, this memo identifies how Medicare will change in future years. The following compares and contrasts the overall budgets and Medicare budgets for each of the federal proposals, and also presents an argument against Congressman Ryan’s proposed Medicare budget. U.S “On-Budget” Surplus and Deficit Historical Data Presented below is the United States surplus and deficit data according to the historical tables provided by the Office of Management and Budget. * The United States on-budget has ran a deficit for the majority of the years between 1990 and 2011. * The years 1999 and 2000 both ran a surplus on-budget. * See chart no. 1, page 6. Federal Government “Off-Budget” Financing * Federally owned and operated entities that are off-budget do not affect the federal budget. The revenues and expenditures of these organizations are not included in the calculation of the federal deficit or surplus. * When the off-budget entities have a surplus, the Federal Government can borrow the money. The surplus in the Social Security Trust Funds is a large source of borrowing for the Federal Government (Penner, 2007)...
Words: 2917 - Pages: 12
...Budget Deficit For many decades, there has been a concern for the deficit within the United States. Many politicians, authors, newscasters, and citizens have expressed their distress in order to resolve or control the issue. Keynesian economic theory states that running a budget deficit is okay, as long as the deficit is not exorbitantly large and is not carried for a long period of time. Even though many experts agree with this notion, having a deficit at all is important to the present and future economic stability of a country. For the most part, the uncontrolled increases in spending and reckless tax cuts in the past have damaged the federal budget, which the White House and Congress have allowed to occur. President Bush has put a fair amount of influence towards the federal deficit in his campaigns, State of the Union Addresses, and policies as President. According to the article titled U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks, at the end of the fiscal year for 2006, Bush stated that he had officially cut the budget deficit in half to $247.7 billion, as promised, from the projected deficit of $521 billion. The President credited his tax cuts and business tax incentives for the better-than-expected showing in revenues, which drove the deficit to the lowest level in four years. Obviously, there are many that argue against this rationale to the fact that there was more at hand than the President’s policies. The Democrats belittled the sharp reduction in the deficit for the...
Words: 1176 - Pages: 5
...The USA with its enormous budget plan has long been the important determinant of the present trend, regularly representing near 50% of the entire planet's military use. The impacts of worldwide budgetary emergency and the post-Iraq/Afghanistan military operations have seen a decrease in its spending; now representing 39% of using in 2012. The worldwide fiscal and financial emergency brought about numerous countries curtailing numerous kinds of open spending, then again military spending pressed on to expand. Just in 2012 was a fall in world military use noted — and it was a modest fall. How might kept spending be supported in such a period? Soon after the crisis hit, numerous countries liked either high investment development or far less demanding access to credit without any learning of what was to come. A mixture of components demonstrated expanded military spending as of late after the financial crisis as prior SIPRI reports had likewise noted, for instance: •foreign approach destinations •real or observed dangers •armed clash and approaches to help multilateral peacekeeping operations •availability of budgetary assets (Shah) The last point eludes quickly advancing countries like China and India that have seen their economies blast lately. Also, high and climbing world advertise costs for minerals and fossil energizes (in any event up to this point) have additionally empowered a few countries to use increasingly on their militaries. China, despite anything that...
Words: 615 - Pages: 3
...The Insolvency of Medicare The biggest threat to our country is not global warming, terrorism, drugs and violence or even wars, it is our entitlement programs. The big three are Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Medicare, being the largest, is the health insurance provided for people 65 and older and for younger people with disabilities. The debt that this program alone creates, will transform this country for the worst. With the baby-boomers starting to retire, Medicare spending is expected to skyrocket. Although many feel Medicare is necessary, it is economically problematic for the future of our country. One problem is Medicare’s relationships with physicians are deteriorating. With politicians realizing there are problems, it is easier for them to cut the payments to doctors then to cut the benefits to the patients. Between 2001 and 2010, doctor payments from Medicare have risen only one percent but the physician costs have gone up 22 percent (Childress). According to a 2011 article by Daniel E. Fass, MD, “physicians are in for a 29% slash in Medicare reimbursements this year.” More and more physicians are deciding not to accept Medicare patients. For example, the clinic Qliance decided not to accept both Medicare and private insurance. Only one person is needed to do the billing for 12 doctors. They were able to cut their costs by 40% just by reducing the enormous paperwork and cutting the red tape that held them hostage to the government system (Childress)...
Words: 926 - Pages: 4
...debt and there is an abundant amount of programs and organizations that could use major tune ups here in America with that money (Boccia). Putting our money in the right places is what will truly make America great again. We already put enough into the military budget; the United States should focus on other government programs like health care, infrastructure, and education. There is absolutely no reason to increase the military budget when our military is already the biggest military in the world and the military budget is already bigger than...
Words: 1080 - Pages: 5
...“America is on a dangerous budget path. Current spending and debt are dangerously high, and future spending and debt are on track to rise even higher in large part due to the increasing entitlement spending” (Boccia, 2013). As recent as February of 2014, congress has decided to yet again raise the debt ceiling for America, this time capping the limit at $17.2 trillion dollars. This marks the fifth effective increase in the debt ceiling since August 1, 2011, when it was $14.3 trillion (Sahadi, 2014). If America continues to raise this limit, how is the debt crisis that our nation is currently experiencing going to affect our businesses; and more importantly, us as individuals in future years? The issues that need to be addressed to see where the root of this problem starts, and where the solution can be found starts with looking at the events other countries have or are currently facing, and how they have come up with strategies to solve their debt crisis. From there we need to focus on the economic trends that we are currently in, and the negative and positive effects that they are having. The effects that will be discussed are how creditors view America, how it affects businesses through prolonged drag and economic growth, and how it will affect the individual with inflation and increase in taxes. As this paper addresses these issues, it will reveal the scary truth of the tolls that will be put on America if they continue with their dangerous budget path. “The warning bells...
Words: 1910 - Pages: 8
...Goals, Outcome Statements and Budget Estimates of The Federal Government of Pakistan Compiled by Tariq Husain (thusain@rabt-e-nau.com) for Rabt-e-Nau (www.rabt-e-nau.com) Islamabad Resource Number: GOVERN-R-001 on the Website 31 January 2011 Introduction In June 2010, the Finance Division of the Government of Pakistan presented an innovative budget document, called the Green Book, or the Federal Medium Term Budget Estimates for Service Delivery 2010-13 (http://finance.gov.pk/budget/mtbf_2010_13.pdf). The purpose, as stated in its Preface, “is to provide Parliament and other stakeholders with the clearest possible statement of the services which are to be delivered and the investments to be undertaken through the application of the funds appropriated by Parliament and, equally importantly, the results which are expected to be achieved in terms of the achievement of goals of public sector activity and the benefits expected to accrue to different population groups from the activities of the Federal Government. The publication of the Green Book marks a major step forward in enhancing the transparency of the federal budget.” The Preface highlights the innovative features of the Green Book in the following words: (a) The Green Book uses the 3-year framework for budgetary planning which lies at the heart of the MTBF reforms. Under this process ministries make their plans and prepare budgetary estimates for a rolling 3-year budgetary horizon. (b) The centerpiece of the Green...
Words: 6030 - Pages: 25
...Assignment 1: The Business Environment By: Deont’e Monroe Course: Bus100 (Intro to Business) Instructor: Terese Cole The word business according to Wikipedia.com* is defined as “A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization involved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers.”* The word economy according to Wikipedia.com* is defined as “An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital, and land resources; and the manufacturing, production, trade distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area”.* In the simplest form of explanation business is the economy, there can’t be one without the other. From all of the big market corporations such as Wal-Mart, Apple, McDonalds, etc., down to the small businesses started by entrepreneurs. Businesses are labeled into two categories; for-profit and non-profit businesses. For-profit business is defined as “a business or other whose primary goal is making a profit.” Any place where you go and receive a good or service and you must pay in return is a for-profit business. A non-profit business or organization is defined as “An organization which focuses a goal such as helping the community and is concerned with money only as much as necessary to keep the organization operating.” Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, medical institutes, foundations for children, even charities in themselves are non-profit organizations created for the good of giving back to...
Words: 1175 - Pages: 5
...DUCOMMUN INCORPORATED - A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Ana Miramontes Keller Graduate School of Management Securities Analysis FIN560 Professor Kasthuri Henry June 15, 2013 DUCOMMUN INCORPORATED - A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Charles Ducommun settled in California during the Gold Rush, he never would have imagined the impact this move would make his future and the future of investors in the stock market. According to Ducommun Incorporated’s website, Ducommun began operations in 1849 as small hardware store in Los Angeles, California. The company has since then evolved into a $600 million dollar company (Ducommun Incorporated, n.d.). In the early years of the aerospace industry, Ducommun Incorporated provided aircraft aluminum to aircraft makers. The company has completely evolved – there is no semblance of what used to be a hardware store. Today the firm is a premier provider of engineering and manufacturing services in the areas of defense, aerospace, mining, the petroleum industry and the medical field. Ducommun Incorporated has three major divisions: Ducommun Aero Structures (DAS), Ducommun LaBarge Technologies (DLT) and Ducommun Miltec. Together, these three units generated over $747 million in revenue for fiscal year ended 2012 and returned an EPS of $1.55 to their shareholders. As part of the aerospace and defense industry and the electronic manufacturing services, Ducommun is still in a mature life cycle. However, due to the ever-changing technological world we live in...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
...Name Tutor Course Date Article 1 Strategies for economic prosperity Mark Whitehouse and Greg Ip. July 29, 2006. Economic growth Mark Whitehouse and Greg Ip in their article on economic growth explain on the price rise as well as on growth slow. Explains that during economic expansion, prices and wages are increasing, a potentially noxious mix for a Federal Reserve will try to contain inflation without triggering a recession. According to an advance estimate made by the commerce department economic activity slowed as a result of builders putting up fewer homes and consumers cutting on spending. Economists explain that slowing growth and rising prices will continue to complicate Fed’s task of deciding what level of interest rates is high enough to contain inflation. However, it’s not so high to slay out economic growth. Between April and June inflation grew at a rate of 2.5% whereas the core personal consumption index rose at an annualized rate of 2.9% in the second quarter. More so the level of worker’s wages and benefits rose at 3.6%. Once the Friday report was released investors took up the vision that Fed would be more likely give the economy a break by holding the interests steadily at 5.25%. This report confirmed the predictions of the economists that cooling house market as well as the consumer spending will take a bite out of economic growth. However, some economists had the hopes that business investment as well as improving the foreign trade would offset...
Words: 1926 - Pages: 8
...Word Count: 950 The Budget Control Act, signed into law on the 2nd of August 2011, aims to reign in the discretionary spending of the United States, which has grown by at least 40% since 2002 (heritage.org). A key reason as to why the Budget Control Act mainly targets discretionary spending is because it is viewed as being a more flexible fiscal tool than mandatory spending. Discretionary spending covers costs such as federal and military wages and salaries, the purchase and development of public assets, education programs, transportation maintenance and development, etc. To summarize, the Budget Control Act establishes caps on discretionary spending through 2021, as an attempt to reduce the national deficit by more than $2.5 trillion. In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if the parties cannot agree on methods to cut spending, about $1 trillion in automatic, arbitrary cuts would begin in 2013 (whitehouse.gov). The proposed cuts include a fixed 2% per year decrease of Medicare, cutting non-defense spending such as education by 7.8% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2021, and reducing defense spending to a total of $454 billion (Congressional Budget Office). In FY 2013, military spending accounted for 56.94% of discretionary spending (City Data). That astoundingly large fraction, coupled with the current administration’s shift towards a more hands-off foreign policy, and a survey that shows that 37% of Americans think the government is spending too much on defense, has unsurprisingly...
Words: 1338 - Pages: 6
