Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

"What makes the economy more resisitant? There is absolutely NO WAY the economy couldn't have been effected by 9/11. Even if people hadn't feared. Huge amounts of money were lost because of the time that was lost in the market. Companies that were on the edge of staying in business folded. Numerous others lost extreme amounts of money." The key is that "lost" is an inaccurate term. It is true that some people had to transfer their money to someone that they hadn't planned on having to, but that is expense not loss. Why that is important is "Insurance companies lost 20billion." The people paying to be insured never counted that investment as a loss--so, what you really saw was a transfer of money from savings into investment. By that model, the attacks actually created oppurtuity

"Education and courage are not going to make us more resistant economically." Why did people sell stock after 9-11? It was because they were percieving a weakness that didn't exist. So, the resiliency occurs a year later when investors say, huh, it is still a decent economy. Had the economy been resistant to the attack, we could have foregone the dip--in fact, we could even have considered it a patriotic imperative to not withdraw investments

"They know that" I disagree. I think that they believe just the opposite and look at the short term results as proof. "History has proven it." Whose history? Not the history of any other superpower that has ever existed. (Ming Dynasty, Rome, Napoleonic France, Britian etc)In fact, I would offer just the opposite--that history proves that economic power will deterioriate through a predicatable set of events.

couldn't proof read above--I am late for class--

What makes something resistant? It's not a defense against something unknown. It's a familiarity with it.

What exactly do you think that education and courage would involve?

And I would beg a couple other questions - how is our response to attacks, threats and extremes going to allow them a victory? What exactly do they have the POWER to do?

And lastly, just because I have a will and determination and a commitment to do it, doesn't mean I can successfully pee my name in the snow. Some things will just never happen. Now I might be able to make a mess of it, and actually be considered partly successful. But I will never be able to fully succeed.