Betting the company
“Gates war funding request increases by a third”, reads a CNN headline. The figure in question, for both Iraq and Afghanistan, is $190 billion. Another third, and Microsoft’s entire market capitalisation is on the line. Despite a huge private aircraft they keep at a federal airport near their office, Messrs. Page and Brin have a ways to go to match that kind of capital.
Hey, it’s okay while it’s not your money right? And a lot more fun.
Google’s not far behind, surprisingly — market cap: $177bn.
@Duncan: That’s $90 billion behind, which is pretty far. A 50% jump in Google’s marcap will take some time. Especially since it seems to have plateaued, except for a rise between April and July which accounts for most of the gains it made versus Microsoft (whose share price is pretty stagnant too).
@Frank: Indeed. Governments are pretty good at spending other people’s money. That said, defence spending is less controversial, even among small-government conservatives and libertarians, than entitlement spending or discretionary spending elsewhere in the budget. The Bush administration’s record on the latter is marginally better. It’s not exactly Reaganesque; he increased military spending by double-digits, but cut discretionary spending by just as much. I think a line-item veto would help. Pity Congress won’t give it to the president, and pity that the spending restraint the new Congress promised was exactly as predicted: an empty promise.