Interviewed on Oct. 22 by the online magazine German- Foreign-Policy.com, French economist Claude Serfati argued that rearmament causes lower growth, lower private investment, and fewer jobs than civilian government spending. Military spending does not contribute to “the growth of wealth,” said Serfati, who works at the Paris-based Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (IRES). According to the article, a government’s focus on the arms industry has “serious economic disadvantages” and could even lead to the “decline” of a country in the long term.