Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
AUDIO – The costs of war
Wars have numerous costs and most of those are unimaginable for most of us not in the middle of one.
But, aside from the tragic cost of death or injury, wars also cost a lot of money to finance and President-elect Barack Obama will be facing some of those costs (as well as a whole mess of other stuff) when he takes office in January.
As the United States grapples with a severely struggling economy, a number of federal bailouts and questions about our overall financial shape, Obama will also have to decide rather quickly how he will prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the staffing of the military.
On Monday, Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute and Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group spoke at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit about the kinds of challenges Obama will face and just how much this is all going to cost.
AUDIO – Teddy Roosevelt had it right
The world is a more dangerous place because of the global economic meltdown, according to Northrop Grumman Chief Executive Ronald Sugar, whose company provides specialized aircraft, radar and other electronics to meet that threat.
Sugar was the kick-off speaker at the annual Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit on Monday in Washington, D.C.
AUDIO – Gazprom: Friends in high places
President Dmitry Medvedev is the former chairman of Russia’s state gas export monopoly Gazprom, and the company is viewed as a powerful instrument of the Kremlin’s foreign and domestic policy, but the company’s deputy chief, executive, Alexander Medvedev, says it is not so.
Even at the height of Russia’s brief war with Georgia over the breakaway territory of Abkhazia, Gazprom was steadily pumping gas to Georgian consumers, Alexander Medvedev said.
