Economic Impact of 9/11
By Jake Paget
The
morning of 9/11 started just like every other day, but today four planes were
hijacked by several terrorists. Three of these four planes were successful in
hitting their targets of the Twin Towers and The Pentagon. The last plane was
designated to hit the White House, but crashed into the fields of Pennsylvania
because brave civilians forced the terrorists to lose control of the plane. Final
death toll for the event surpassed Pearl Harbor with a total count of 2,975
fatalities. According to an article on About.com entitled “How the 9/11 Attack
Still Affects the Economy Today” written by Kimberly Amadeo, “Their goal was to cripple the U.S. economy by
destroying its centers of power: Wall Street, the Pentagon and the White House.” The attack of 9/11 caused both immediate and
long-term impacts on the economy. Some quick impacts were that it enhance the
2001 recession, and drop the Dow, an
indicator of stock market prices, over
600 points. The events taking place on 9/11 then caused for one of the largest
government spending programs in the history of the United States. The War on Terror. 
At
that time America was going through what was known as the 2001 recession. The
recession started in March of 2001, but was initially caused by the Y2K scare.
The Y2k scare lead up to a boom in internet business. The attacks of 9/11 just
aggravated the 2001 recession more than it already was. This was the first time
since The Great Depression that the stock market closed for an extended time,
four trading days. This opportunity cost
was having some large stocks dropping hundreds of points.
On
the 20th of September, President Bush gave a speech and said, “Americans should not expect one battle but a lengthy
campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen.” Bush called for the War on
Terror and put it into action. The war launched in Afghanistan was initially
for the cause of finding Al-Quada leader, Osama bin Laden. This cost the United
States $33 billion, including homeland security. But not long after, troops
were sent into Iraq and the CIA was said to have found weapons of mass
destruction. Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s leader, was assisting the operations of
Al-Quada. The war in Iraq after its first year cost $50 billion, but by the
time Bush was done in office the War on Terror amounted to $864.82 billion.
These costs included the choice to
increase in Homeland Security and Defense Department funding.
The
largest impact that 9/11 had on the economy was the raise in defense spending
leading to United States debt crisis. If the War on Terror never occurred, the
country’s debt could be less than $15.5 trillion and manageable. Also caused by
the War on Terror was the scarcity
of funds available for putting towards stimulus programs to
shoot the United States out of the 2008 financial crisis. Kimberly
states, “Fewer jobs were created, which meant less tax revenue, further
boosting the debt.” Were these mass amounts of funding toward the War on Terror
Necessary?
(Additional information in the
video below.)
I never realized that 9/11 caused so many economic issues. It's horrifyingly amazing that this one group planned such a detailed and devastating plan such as 9/11. It's truly awful and terrifying to know that there are people out there who actually want to hurt us. The opportunity cost due to this whole thing is truly terrible too. In trying to crumble our economy, we lost so many amazing people. People who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and others who braved the conditions to save civilians trapped in the towers...we will always be in debt to those amazing people.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that the stocks closed for a while due to this day. Although I was also only 5 years old, so what would I know at that time. But that is not surprising sadly. Such a devastating blow to our home would of course cause tremendous problems economically. Millions of dollars would have to go to rebuilding wall street. Thousands of dollars would go to fixing the pentagon. Millions would go towards the crashed planes and money I would assume go towards the airports that closed for those weeks as well as many other places that were shut down. Many people also lost their jobs, so there were no taxes being payed either.
I knew that 9/11 had caused a lot of issues in the economy but I didn't really know how large the effects were until I read your post. I think it is insane that not only did they kill so many people but that wasn't even their main goal. They wanted to cripple our economy and ever since that event our economy never really has been the same so it is obvious that they have succeeded mostly in their plans. I had no idea that the stock market had closed for four days because I had been so young but that is just insane. I can only imagine the amount of money we had to spend to recover and are probably not even fully recovered yet. This event wasn't only devastating to families who lost loved ones but it has also effected people for the last decade all over the country.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read "Economics impacted of 9/11" I thought it would be talking about how the price of the American flag went up. Since Every household had one flying up the next week. But what you said was really interesting. I never would think 9/11 would hit the economy that hard. And your question was it necessary? I think it is necessary to react and do something about what happened. We can not just stand by and let other countries or groups walk over us. The way we react may not have been the best or even right way but as American we would do anything for our country no matter the cost. Our TASTE for being America went up causing us to spent funds on the war of terror
ReplyDeleteI was instantly drawn to this article because I saw it had to do with 9/11 and sadly, that is my birthday, so I guess I wanted to learn more about the repercussions that this day had. I always thought of 9/11 as solely just a terrorist attack, and never really thought of what the other motives were behind the attack. I thought it was just to harm and kill Americans, I never really thought about the logic and how it would effect our economy. This article opened my eyes to see how much money was put in to try and repair these incredible damages. I definitely think it was smart and the best for our country to put in money to go and fight the country and organization that did us wrong. Not only have such dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders such as Hussein and Bin Laden been killed, but putting this effort and money into repairing our economy and fighting for our country shows true patriotism, and I think it would have been wrong to not put in this kind of money for our country.
ReplyDelete9/11 came as a shock to millions of Americans. No one was ready for what was yet to come. Not only were there major increases in spending overseas in the war, but in America as well. American security came under a lot of criticism and the president ordered to increase the sending on homeland security increasing the ever growing deficit. It certainly also didn't help that we were going through the recession in 2001 which set our country back further. Many Americans wanted to get back at our attacks and were fully on board with the war which increased the demand for more military spending.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that 9/11 had that big of an impact on our economy. It's sad to know that it's main goal was to kill our economy but that also included the lives of many of our citizens. I also never knew that the attack of 9/11 dropped the Dow over 600 points. Is our economy still in effect of 9/11 or have we recovered since then? If our economy is still greatly affected by 9/11 when will it be recovered. Also, If we were to have another terrorist attack would there be any way that we could avoid another economical crash or will we just have to deal with another economical crash?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea the death count could reach so high with almost 4000. It would make sense with the idea of trying to cripple the US economy and government and all. Surrounding of the mishaps must've been awful as well. However it was unusual with all of the different things that happened that made it somewhat of a conspiracy with people who wanted to look into the case ended up dying, or maybe even something else like the people who gotten awards from taking this case to court. It was a very good post and it was such a tragic event, and still on how our country took this act was amazing.
ReplyDeleteWow this is crazy. I previously knew that the attack on 9/11 was used to destroy our central powers and spark fear in all of our live. I had never really attempted to look up the financial coast that 9/11 coast us. However those numbers would make sense because as our demand for justice goes up we are willing to pay more money to find Osama bin Laden.
ReplyDeleteThis tragedy did indeed cause many economic hardships for the country. One as you mentioned was in Homeland Security. This has to do with a lot of things in regards to security checks and staff at airports. Before this event there were no where near as much security in airports. After this event scanners and TSA employees needed to be hired to increase the amount of checks done on people flying on planes. Also the damage to New York City had to be cleaned up by construction workers and damage to surrounding buildings had to be repaired, all again costing money and economic hardship.
ReplyDeleteThis tragedy had a great effect on our country and I like how you looked at it from and economic stand point because it did indeed cause a lot of economic hardships that maybe some people are not very conscious of. When most people think of 9/11 they think of the emotional distress that it caused not the economic distress.
ReplyDeleteI find it somewhat ironic that the increased military spending meant to protect the country actually plunged it into an abyss of debt. On top of that, the war on terror has been fairly aimless and unproductive in terms of what has tangibly been accomplished. In theory the US is safer today than it was before the war on terror, but whatever progress has been made is hypothetical, because nobody can say for sure if terror attacks would have continued had we not gone to war.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear from a economic perspective that 9/11 had a great impact on the U.S. economy. The government had to increase spending at a time where a recession was already taking place. Also, many American's became weary about the U.S.'s stability with a slightly unknown future. 9/11 many have help lead to the economies downfall in 2008 because rebuilding from the attack was still taking place.
ReplyDeleteWhile the attack of 9/11 had clear emotional consequences, the economic consequences were also great as you pointed out. The opportunity cost of people attempting to utilize the airway system and get through airport security is ridiculously high, especially to those classified and stereotyped as similar to those responsible for the attack. However, the economic costs were even greater as the government incurred debt to fight the "war on terrorism". It is shocking to observe the amount of money that was lost in the aftermath of 9/11. In addition to the emotional turmoil and pandemonium the events sent our country into, it was also likely the cause of an economic downfall as we scrambled to cover the costs of damage and ending terrorism. Cleary 9/11 was additionally a impactful economic event.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to find out that the reason behind the attack was to cripple the US economy. And it's also crazy to think that so many people died during that time. Throughout the past couple years security has changed in many different ways. Airport security for one, they're much more cautious about what people can and cannot bring on a plane. It's insane to learn that so much money went into trying to end terrorism and get the government back up and running.
ReplyDeleteI found this article extremely interesting as you used something that happened years ago, but still affects our economy today. I never knew how much money all of the crisis situations like this really cost our country. I think that its really interesting to think about. Is it really worth spending all of this money just because we have a disagreement with another country? In some ways yes, because it is security, but in other ways it's kind of ridiculous how much money goes towards all of this, when our economy really can't afford it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the attack accomplished what it was set up to do. It’s obvious from your post that the US would be in a much better position financially if the War on Terror never happened. Do you think the not so marginal cost is worth the benefit? Or did the US spend way too much money on way too many programs that don’t improve Homeland security enough?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading your article it gave me new in site to one of the great 9/11 attack. I never knew that the reason they attacked us was to cripple our economy. I don't think anyone would connect that. Also I found it interesting that the amount of money we used was so much/ I knew our country were in a rough time. Also it looked like the goal that was set out for the attack of 9/11 had success it brought the U.S crumbling down and making it harder for us to get back on our feet. And in reality I still think that we are still fully trying to recover from the attack. That we never got back on our feet all the way and now it just has become worse.
ReplyDeleteThe economic aftereffects of 9/11 were devastating in a number of ways. It came as no surprise to me that the extent of this disaster was not just limited to New York city. The nation as a whole suffered and, although the widespread effects of this horrific event were not as widespread as they were intended to be, recovery still took a great deal of time.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing useful information...
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