yup--Halliburton's there
September 1, 2005 3:58 PM Subscribe
The business of rebuilding --A range of companies that are expected to play a role in repairing damage, clearing debris and restoring power to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast ...
Some are saying that Katrina could actually boost the Gulf Coast's economic growth for the next few years, while others are forecasting higher energy prices, commodity shortages--and even steeper coffee prices.
Worse, the storm may blast inflation throughout the economy.
Broken Window Fallacy?
The stupid thing is to have endemic poverty and crap infrastructure and housing. Hello? Job training? WPA?
Spending $600B/yr on infrastructure and capital investment instead of trying to police the world might be a good idea... At $60k per family that would help around 40M people per year.
Nicer house. Nicer neighborhood. Actual transportation infrastructure. Dunno what the people would do after the reconstruction fairy moved on, though.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 4:14 PM on September 1, 2005
The stupid thing is to have endemic poverty and crap infrastructure and housing. Hello? Job training? WPA?
Spending $600B/yr on infrastructure and capital investment instead of trying to police the world might be a good idea... At $60k per family that would help around 40M people per year.
Nicer house. Nicer neighborhood. Actual transportation infrastructure. Dunno what the people would do after the reconstruction fairy moved on, though.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 4:14 PM on September 1, 2005
Just more evidence that GDP measures nothing useful.
posted by wilful at 5:17 PM on September 1, 2005
posted by wilful at 5:17 PM on September 1, 2005
No one seems to have hit on the biggest problem from this storm yet. America has long relied on the christmas season to boost an ailing economy through american exuberance over gift giving and traveling during the holidays. With the continued rise in gas prices traveling will be a much less attractive option this christmas.
But thats not all, products will cost more because it will cost more to get them to the store. Combined with increased heating costs for anyone unlucky enough to be relying on anything other than nuclear power and a heat pump. As a result consumers will be spending less this christmas which will lead to less than stellar 4th quarter profits for a huge spectrum of our economy.
Sometime in january these results will become public knowledge, and THEN then we will feel the pain.
posted by sourbrew at 5:27 PM on September 1, 2005
But thats not all, products will cost more because it will cost more to get them to the store. Combined with increased heating costs for anyone unlucky enough to be relying on anything other than nuclear power and a heat pump. As a result consumers will be spending less this christmas which will lead to less than stellar 4th quarter profits for a huge spectrum of our economy.
Sometime in january these results will become public knowledge, and THEN then we will feel the pain.
posted by sourbrew at 5:27 PM on September 1, 2005
I've already read that some people are calling for no presents this year, with the money going to the RedCross instead--it's a great idea (but will kill the economy, altho heating bills and gas prices will do that anyway). For months all these people will need to be housed and fed, etc.
posted by amberglow at 5:57 PM on September 1, 2005
posted by amberglow at 5:57 PM on September 1, 2005
amber - got a link? i haven't seen anyone with any forsight at all about the christmas holidays.
post 9 - 11 bush told us to keep spending.
posted by sourbrew at 6:07 PM on September 1, 2005
post 9 - 11 bush told us to keep spending.
posted by sourbrew at 6:07 PM on September 1, 2005
Probably not going to be the best year for Jerry's kids.
posted by buzzman at 6:14 PM on September 1, 2005
posted by buzzman at 6:14 PM on September 1, 2005
let me find it...i think it was at Kos or BigBrassBlog...i'll dig for it
posted by amberglow at 7:36 PM on September 1, 2005
posted by amberglow at 7:36 PM on September 1, 2005
found it: My Plan for Sacrifice ...I'm just not going to be giving any holiday gifts when December comes around this year. Instead, I'm going to give whatever I might have spent on presents to hurricane relief efforts instead. Goodness knows that the Gulf Coast refugees need it more than anyone I know needs a new video game or handbag.
I hope you'll consider joining me. I think your friends and family will understand if you explain your decision to them - and they might in turn be motivated to do the same. ...
posted by amberglow at 7:42 PM on September 1, 2005
I hope you'll consider joining me. I think your friends and family will understand if you explain your decision to them - and they might in turn be motivated to do the same. ...
posted by amberglow at 7:42 PM on September 1, 2005
> The predominant view of the fire, however, was decidedly forward-looking and optimistic. As if it were theirs by right, Chicago's boosters claimed possession of the official public memory of the fire, which they dedicated entirely to the golden future, downplaying much of the earlier talk of piety, character, efficiency, and culture. They continued to declare to all that the destruction of Chicago was the best thing that ever happened to the city. Chicago Board of Trade secretary Charles Randolph quickly picked up the booster flag ... in proclaiming that God, geography, and history were on Chicago's side. "Nature has seemed to especially designate the banks of the little bayou on which man has built Chicago as a proper and necessary place for the exchange of commodities," Randolph declared. While "some may find their burden greater than they can ever stagger under," he contended, others, "with the aid of the outstretched helping hands from the four quarters of the globe," would "repair the waste places, rebuild the levelled landmarks, and raise from the ashes of Chicago past, a city more grand, more substantial, and in every way more adapted to the needs of what the world has come to recognize as the necessities of Chicago future." In this statement, grandeur and substance unseated simplicity and quaintness as desirable urban values, all under the iron rule of "necessity," whose more appealing synonym was "progress."
Another commentator, who clearly saw the city's future through the eyes of the Yankee elite, proclaimed that Chicago's recovery was not only "the proudest manifestation of the concentration of all Anglo-Saxon energy and enterprise, but also …the shining type of the progress of the Nineteenth century." He went on to assert that the fire surpassed the Franco-Prussian War as an event of significance, creating as it did "a new starting point for the memories of the rising generation." The fire was certainly the starting point in the cultural memory of modern Chicago, which adapted history to its own needs and purposes. The greatest imaginative feat of remembering was to claim that the epic disaster at once gave the young city what it most lacked—a history and a tradition—and devalued the past. This involved a paradox that required a good deal of evasion and repression. The paradox was based in the much-repeated notion that the scale of the disaster demonstrated the greatness of Chicago, which earned recognition as a world-class city by burning to the ground.
posted by dhartung at 8:39 PM on September 1, 2005
Another commentator, who clearly saw the city's future through the eyes of the Yankee elite, proclaimed that Chicago's recovery was not only "the proudest manifestation of the concentration of all Anglo-Saxon energy and enterprise, but also …the shining type of the progress of the Nineteenth century." He went on to assert that the fire surpassed the Franco-Prussian War as an event of significance, creating as it did "a new starting point for the memories of the rising generation." The fire was certainly the starting point in the cultural memory of modern Chicago, which adapted history to its own needs and purposes. The greatest imaginative feat of remembering was to claim that the epic disaster at once gave the young city what it most lacked—a history and a tradition—and devalued the past. This involved a paradox that required a good deal of evasion and repression. The paradox was based in the much-repeated notion that the scale of the disaster demonstrated the greatness of Chicago, which earned recognition as a world-class city by burning to the ground.
posted by dhartung at 8:39 PM on September 1, 2005
The huge debt created by the current administration including the debt from the war in Iraq were already going to "blast inflation throughout the economy." Katrina just gives the powers that be an excuse to blame all the inflation on a natural distaster or "Act of God."
I wrote a long article based on G. Edward Griffin's book The Creature from Jekyl Island about war and how it creates inflation. Anybody who wants to understand money and inflation should check out Griffin's well-researched book.
posted by MonkeyC at 10:02 PM on September 1, 2005
I wrote a long article based on G. Edward Griffin's book The Creature from Jekyl Island about war and how it creates inflation. Anybody who wants to understand money and inflation should check out Griffin's well-researched book.
posted by MonkeyC at 10:02 PM on September 1, 2005
I read somewhere that the money and resources needed here at home now for the Gulf could be an exit strategy from Iraq, if our leadership weren't all incompetent evil imbeciles.
posted by amberglow at 11:01 PM on September 1, 2005
posted by amberglow at 11:01 PM on September 1, 2005
and worth reposting regarding Katrina: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
posted by amberglow at 9:52 PM on September 16, 2005
posted by amberglow at 9:52 PM on September 16, 2005
and this: ... A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?...
posted by amberglow at 9:56 PM on September 16, 2005
posted by amberglow at 9:56 PM on September 16, 2005
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And, if so, expect an increase in interest rates and subsequent effect on house prices...
posted by scheptech at 4:01 PM on September 1, 2005