$1 trillion is alotta cash

global defense spending topped $1 trillion last year according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. usa today and reuters have articles with a bunch of interesting stats:

• defense spending comprised 2.6% of global expenditure for 2004. but, this figure is still 6% less than cold war peak spending of the 80s, which would have been an even larger share (perhaps ~4%--i couldn't find global stats for the time)
• while the US share is nearly 50% at $455 million, india and china increased defense spending bigtime. btw, i was surprised to see japan was 4th in spending
• supplying 63%, the US remains the world's arms merchant