-The cost of equipping an infantry soldier tripled, from $7000 in 1999 to $24,000 today.
-The cost of Humvee's went from $32,000 in 2001 to a breathtaking $225,000 each today.
-The cost of training, feeding and housing Army recruits went from $75,000 per soldier in 2001 to $120,000 today. (The Army uses private contractors, largely Halliburton's Kellogg, Root & Brown, to provide most non-training services, such as food service and base maintenance.) Read more…

Hale's got a great piece up that I think we should all email to our Congresscritters. These aren't what you'd call "happy" numbers:

More than six in 10 Americans say the country is on the wrong track, according to a new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll. More than half disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy, and 36 percent strongly disapprove. Almost half, 48 percent, say his policies have made the economy worse than it was when he became president; 19 percent say it's better.

``Gas prices are knocking us back into the dirt,'' said Burden, 31, one of the respondents in the poll. ``It seems like, since Bush took office, the government is burning up cash again, and things are getting worse.'' Read more…

Looks like the Corrente Collective is on an economics kick today, so here's mine. Stirling Newberry has a terrific post over at TPM Cafe today which he calls "If You Hate The Boom You Are Going to Positively Loathe The Recession." Have you been wondering why "the economy" is allegedly so great on paper when it is steadily getting worse in your personal pocketbook? Listen my children and you shall hear:

Inflation, to the extent that a government benefits from it, is a kind of tax. Americans have been trained to point the shotgun of their vote squarely at their own foot on the tax issue. They have been trained to hate visible taxes like the income tax, and love stealth taxes. Inflation is a stealth tax, in that you can't tell who is collecting it, how it falls on people, or what its overall effects are. It simply eats away at your living standard and savings, and the benefits flow to those who have the power to spend that taxed standard of living. Read more…