The short month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is my favorite time of year in Washington — so many parties, so many story leads. But the stakes are higher this year as everyone looks to find out how President-elect Donald Trump will shape his Pentagon team and its priorities. Putting aside the parlour gaming over who will sit in what seat inside The Building, this week we heard from the leaders of America's largest defense firms, who gathered in Palm Beach, Florida, for Credit Suisse's Annual Industrials Conference.

One by one, they professed to have no inside line on the next administration's priorities, even though some have already met with Trump's transition team — and yet most expressed optimism, even bullishness, that defense spending is about to rise. That's good news for their firms' bottom lines.