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| Economy |
| SandyÂ’s Economic Toll is Massive |
| 2012-10-30 |
| The economic toll from the vast storm Sandy on the U.S. East Coast is expected to be massive, with billions of dollars in damages. One catastrophe assessment company, Eceqat, predicted the toll could hit $20 billion, with perhaps half of that amount covered by insurance. Sandy spawned widespread flooding and wind damage — especially in the northeastern state of New Jersey and New York City — before moving inland and weakening on Tuesday. Large industrial manufacturers and oil refiners shut their operations all along the country's eastern seaboard. Hundreds of small businesses are inundated with floodwaters. The New York Stock Exchange called off trading again on Tuesday, the first time the exchange has been closed for two days in a row because of the weather since 1888. More than 14,000 airline flights have been canceled. Some analysts said the storm's economic impact could diminish the country's already sluggish economic growth, perhaps subtracting a tenth or two-tenths of a percentage point from the U.S. economy in the last three months of the year. But other economists said the losses would be offset as communities affected by the storm spend large sums to fix their roads and other infrastructure and manufacturers repair their facilities. While the damage from Sandy is substantial, it pales in comparison to Hurricane Katrina, the monster 2005 storm that hit the southern U.S. shoreline near New Orleans. It caused $108 billion in damage and killed 1,200 people. |
| Posted by:Au Auric |
| #8 TW, which is good news unless you work for or invest in an insurance company. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2012-10-30 21:50 |
| #7 Would the Romney campaign be legally allowed to donate campaign money to the victims or not? The Romney campaign is collecting canned goods and other non-perishables for those hit by the storm, European Conservative, which at this point is better than money. I heard estimates today that about half the cost of rebuilding will be covered by insurance, for what that's worth. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2012-10-30 20:39 |
| #6 How does the economic impact of Sandy compare to the last three years of Obamination? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-10-30 20:27 |
| #5 Doubtful, EC. But I'm sure he's already donated a lot of the money that he earned. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2012-10-30 19:13 |
| #4 I was just wondering: Would the Romney campaign be legally allowed to donate campaign money to the victims or not? |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2012-10-30 18:10 |
| #3 Ah yes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2012-10-30 18:06 |
| #2 Krugman was hoping Martians surfed in on Sandy with nukes at the ready to smash some serious glass. /srsly |
| Posted by: Shipman 2012-10-30 18:03 |
| #1 I remember back with Hurricane Irene the democrates were quite pleased with the prospect of jobs created to fix the damage which would be created; even NC Gov. Bev "don't need no elections" Perdue had to come out and say, "shaddup." |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2012-10-30 17:28 |