I know this is a strange thing to think about right now but on the news they are saying that the events of yesterday might be enough to push the country into recession.

Enid and I are seriously thinking about heading to the store tomorrow, maybe to buy a few toys for the children's hospital or maybe clothes for the homeless shelter. We're also considering what purchases we may have been putting off and might spend a few dollars.

It might sound like of stupid but as New Yorkers Enid and I want to make a statement that terrorists can't stop us from going on with our lives. And while I am upset that anyone would take advantage of price gouging I also want to support retailers local and national.

Best wishes to everyone during these awful times.

I think people need to be strong and carry on with their business. The terrorists wanted to hurt the world economy with this incident and we can't let them succeed.

But things aren't looking good. The Australian stockmarket lost 4% of its value yesterday and the Tokyo Nikkei lost 7% of its value. Both are now at 10 and 17 year lows.

I hate to think of the financial carnage that will happen once the US stockmarket re-opens.

Sure, things will be bad. But it'll be very hard to gauge if they're worse tomorrow (or whenever the exchanges open) because of the tragedy. Mainly because things were already heading downward on Monday and that trend was likely to continue.

The good news is, as a country, and as a world, we have bigger things going on in the front page now (if that can be considered good news). Maybe we'll find a unity here that'll make us realize that 4.9% unemployment is only bad if you factor in the recent boom, and the fact we're now, in some sense, at war and it's time for sacrifices anyway.

If anything it'll be nice to see the economic tides, the ups and downs, as below the fold news for a while. That might bolster confidence. Also, this country in particular generally takes to rebuilding well.

-Andrew

Oh, for more reading, I just found these:

Point:
http://slate.msn.com/moneybox/entries/01-09-12_115282.asp

Counterpoint:
http://slate.msn.com/code/chatterbox/chatterbox.asp?Show=9/12/2001&idMessage=8279

"I would go along with the view of an equities salesman in Europe quoted by Reuters: "Really, a lot of analysts are wondering what the point is when people are dying �""

Guys, I wouldn't worry too much. Americans are a sentimental bunch. Since most of our economy is driven by consumers, people who have had a very powerful reminder of how lucky they are to be alive and have their loved ones in their lives, they will now show it they way we normally do: By buying nice things for loved ones. It's funny, but this incident might actually "save" the Christmas season, and put us on a rebound.

And I can't think of a nicer way to give the finger to the fuckers that did this to us :-)

If any of the stocks I follow drop like stones, I'll gladly buy them back up. This isn't the end of the world, we'll rebound from this.