About Erwin

Erwin is a defense-economics dataset. Named after Erwin Rommel (1891–1944), the "Desert Fox," and Erwin Smith of Attack on Titan — both commanders who understood that strategy is resource allocation under constraint.

The thesis

Military spending — the single largest category of US discretionary federal spending (~$886B official / ~$1.4T including related programs) — is treated not as an exogenous policy variable but as an endogenous feature of capitalism: military Keynesianism, the permanent arms economy thesis (Kidron), and the military-industrial complex (Melman, Galbraith). Every analysis includes the institutional and political dimensions — who benefits, what power structures are reproduced, and how defense spending interacts with accumulation.

In scope

• US federal defense spending (composition, geography, contractors)
• Cross-country military expenditure (SIPRI) and NATO burden-sharing
• The arms industry and arms trade
• Defense employment and veterans' economics
• Defense-adjacent manufacturing profit rates

Out of scope

• Tactical / operational military analysis
• Foreign-policy or strategic-studies commentary

An Arcanum Research project, built on the Anu Framework. Architect: nickanderson.us. Educational/research dataset; cite per CITATION.cff.