In addition to the horrific loss of life, the WTC bombing is going to have a huge detrimental effect on many sectors of the economy. Travel and tourism has already taken a huge hit, with one airline already having gone out of business. But what sectors of the economy will receive a boost from the bombing? Off the top of my head, the steel industry will probably benefit, as will concrete manufacturers, with whatever building or rebuilding is done. Manufacturers of office furniture and computers may see an upturn as businesses replace destroyed equipment. Construction and related trades in NYC will see a lot of work, and (not to be callous) those businesses who lost huge numbers of employees will have to hire to replace them. So what other sectors do you think will benefit, and do you think it will be sufficient to offset downturns in other sectors?
I really hope that no one gets pissed off by this thread. By asking about the economics I in no way intend to diminsh the cost in human lives.
Security related companies will benefit (if that’s the word) from this. Companies will want to know what, if anything, they can do to protect themselves and their employees.
Government spending, especially on security and defense technology, will definitly increase. So I think the you’ll see some of the companys that produce certain types of weapons and security equipment very busy.
Airports will probably update much their security equipment and I would think most Federal and Public buildings will add at least some more security. All of this will probably have to go through analysts and planners that do this type of thing commercially.
I also got to thinking yesterday that there will be some strange research possibly coming out of this. The lack of jet contrails reminded me that a year or two ago someone was studying the effect contrails were having on cloud formation. The problem was that there was always planes in the air so they couldn’t compare their satellite data to a time when there weren’t many flights in the air. Well I hope they’re paying attention now. This makes me wonder how many other research projects may gain knowledge from this disaster even peripherally.
Ugh. My first thought was that the body-bag manufacturers are having a field day.
I have to wonder what the companies who had huge offices, or their whole offices in the WTC are going to do. I just heard on CNN that the majority of Morgan Stanley workers are accounted for. So the problem may not be that they have to hire a whole lot of new people, but they have to find places for their people to work. (At least I hope that is what happens.) Also, I wonder if these companies will re-structure. After all, nothing makes you think outside the box like losing the entire “box” that you’ve been working in. And of course, losing a huge percentage of your people.
A little New Jersey perspective:
I think that there will be an economic benefit in NJ. Vacant office space will be snapped up, and all the companies who supply and support those offices will get a lot of business.
Also, NJ construction firms will certainly be called in.
But I don’t know if these benefits will offset how much NJ lost in this. So may Jersey folk, especially those that live in Central Jersey and in the Hoboken area worked in those buildings. Many surely lost their lives. Did the rest lose their jobs? Who knows. Otto, I thank you for asking this question. A little intellectual exercising isn’t a bad thing right now.