Europe’s military buildup is being sold as a grand necessity, but the numbers—and the fallout—tell a messier story. Independent studies dangle the carrot: ramp up defense budgets, and you might spark an economic jolt. EY’s report, cooked up for Dekabank and leaked to Handelsblatt, claims a €46 billion annual windfall if NATO’s European crew hikes spending from 2% to 3% of GDP. GDP could jump 0.66 points, and 660,000 jobs might pop up—factories, tech, the works. Sounds like a libertarian’s dream: markets thriving off a leaner, meaner defense.

Except it’s not. Here’s the gut punch: war economies don’t create wealth—they redistribute it, badly. That €46 billion gets ripped from the private sector—businesses, innovators, and regular folks footing the bill. Central planners, with their sticky fingers and socialist swagger, are starving the real engine of prosperity to prop up their latest pet project. We’re not richer; we’re just more militarized and broke.

And the funding? A clown show. The EU’s bureaucratic overlords can’t resist meddling, yet their system’s too creaky to handle this without choking the gains. Eurobonds—my forbidden obsession—could be the fix: joint debt as collateral to juice credit without crushing the private sphere. But don’t hold your breath—these control freaks dread anything that smells like market freedom. This isn’t a boom; it’s a heist, with liberty as the first casualty.