The Free Market:

The United States' Department of Defense
Assets: more than $1 trillion
Employees: about 3.3 million
Nominal annual budget: $419 billion (fiscal year 2006: Oct. 1, 2005 - Sept. 30, 2006)

"The DoD, with more than $1 trillion in assets, 3.3 million employees, and a budget of $417 billion for fiscal year 2005, is the largest single business organization on the planet."¹

Many have been ensnared by gold,
though destruction lay before their eyes.

Sirach 31:6

1. Kris Frieswick, Losing Battles, CFO magazine (an Economist Group business), Oct. 2004, p.45. (Emphasis added.) "Budget" does not include ad hoc supplements approved by Congress for occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. insidious adj. [L. insidiosus < insidiae, an ambush, plot < insidere, to sit in or on, lie in wait for < in-, in + sedere, to sit] 1. characterized by treachery or slyness, crafty, wily 2. operating in a slow or not easily apparent manner; more dangerous than seems evident [an insidious disease]