According to Michael Kidron, the Marxist economist and one of the early founders of the International Socialists, forerunners of the Socialist Workers party, the role of what was then described as the “permanent arms economy” was to counter the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and to boost economic growth.
Six decades later it seems strange to read that Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party has made a deal with the Social Democratic party that will involve an increase in defence spending.
You even quote a BNP economist as saying it could deliver “a positive confidence shock” to the entire German economy (“A new military-industrial complex”, The Big Read, FT Weekend, March 8).
Ivor Morgan
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK
