Years Later 10
Let’s Roll! penned by Flight 93 victim Todd Beamer’s wife, Lisa, details her late husband’s heroics on 9/11.
[ THE PRICE OF FREEDOM ]
Tallying the Cost of Terror’s Brutal Blow
AFTERMATH A soldier killed in Iraq is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
By David A. Patten
The human and economic costs of 9/11 — at least the costs that can be measured — are breathtaking. The tragic statistics are the human ones: almost 3,000 souls lost on 9/11, then, post-9/11, over 6,150 U.S. sol- diers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan (plus an estimated 2,500 American contractors), over 45,000 soldiers wounded in both, and over 126,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilian deaths. Beyond
F that, the damage 86 9|11: A DECADE LATER / NEWSMAX / SEPTEMBER 2011 to America’s infrastructure is stagger-
REEDOM HAS NEVER BEEN FREE, but it has never have been so costly, either.
ing. The cost of the four destroyed commercial jet airliners alone was $418 million. But that was a pittance compared to the major costs stem- ming from that momentous day: $22 billion for the World Trade Center buildings
$5 billion to repair the Pentagon $20.1 billion to care for the vic- tims’ families and fi rst responders Insurance losses that day totaled $19.6 billion Another $15 billion of productivity was lost due to the nationwide dis- ruption in air travel
The mountains of dust and rubble left behind in New York City cost $9 billion to clean up
But the devastating costs on day one were a small fraction of what was to come. The stock markets were closed for a week, and despite the best efforts of the federal govern- ment to soften the blow, when the markets reopened on Sept. 17, 2001, the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record for a one-day decline, falling 684 points. By week’s end, the mar- ket had lost over $1.4 trillion in value. Many analysts blame 9/11 for push- ing an already fragile U.S. economy into recession. Certainly, the attack corresponded with a tough economic period, and no one questions that the disaster hurt the economy. A September 2002 federal report, “The Economic Effects of 9/11: A Retrospective Assessment,” conclud- ed that based on data revisions, GDP actually began contracting in the fi rst quarter of 2001. It continued to pull back through the third quarter. Positive U.S. economic growth actually resumed in the fourth quar- ter, only a few months after 9/11. The report credits the rapid fi nan- cial response of the Federal Reserve, which pumped $300 billion liquidity into markets within three days of the tragedy, possibly averting the double whammy of a terror crisis that was followed by a fi nancial crisis. New York City’s economy, heavily reliant on hospitality and commercial real estate, suffered a tremendous
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