JOURNAL: The Economic Impact of 9/11

Al Qaeda's main goals for 9/11 were a) a high bodycount, and b) the destruction of a symbols (American capitalism, defense, and politics). The economic damage of the attacks was clearly collateral to the main goals -- to wit; no effort was made to maximize the economic impact of the attacks. As terrorist networks move to the tactics of global guerrillas, this will change.

So, how much economic damage did the 9/11 on the World Trade Center (the bulk of the attack) inflict? There are a plethora of studies on the economic impact of 9/11. Unfortunately, none of them agree and many are based on preliminary data that has since proven false. The GAO has done review of the studies on the WTC (PDF). The loss categories for the GAO are:

Direct Losses

Human lives (insurance costs).

Property costs.

Emergency response and clean-up costs.

Health effects.

Temporary housing.

Indirect Losses

Lost employee income from firms that closed or were cut back.

Lost employee income from firms that were dependent on firms that were closed or cut back.

Lost expenditures by firms that were closed or cut back.

Lost tax revenues.

Travel delays for commuters etc.

The best estimate, according to the GAO is that the WTC attack cost (at most) $83 b in direct/indirect costs.

Comments

[J@mes Carmichael]

wow- that is significant.

any ideas how to create similar impacts in return?