[LS]

That "drumbeat" business certainly was not true in 1898---the economy was growing prior to the Sp-Am War; or 1914 (ditto); or the Civil War (which raised HELL with the economy, and it didn't recover for years; and as I said, the Vietnam war killed the economy, along with Ralph Nader, the environmental whacko movement, and stultified non-competitive business.

On he 9/11 destruction, you should go to the Milken Institute web site. Some months ago their economists did a study of the economic cost of 9/11. Go to www.milken-institute.org or www.milken_institute.org (I can't remember which) and look for an article called "The Butcher's Bill." It not only was INITIALLY staggering, but it pushed the already fragile (and admittedly badly-priced) airlines over the edge; that, in turn, further damaged tourism. Look at Disney---the THEME PARK division, which has always been a money maker, announced losses this year. This is almost directly due to 9/11. We were in Vegas a month or so ago---9/11 shut down the entire strip for days, and shut down NY NY hotel for a WEEK due to a similar bomb scare. The people there told me that just THEN (May) they were back to 80-90% of where they were Sept. 10. So you can't tell me that wasn't HUGE. Then throw in the addition burdens of the fed. deficit and all that that implies---I know, it was going to be in deficit anywhy, but nothing like that. So I think 9/11 hurt more than anyone knows.

[arete]

It isn't right to blame 9/11 for as much as people are now doing. Yes, it did hurt the airlines and they sure didn't need any more problems than they already had. Yes, it hurt some tourism, but not as much as you might think. I live in Charleston and you can't fit another tourist in this town. Eisner was steering DIS onto the rocks before 9/11.

The only point that I'm trying to make here is that The Office of Propaganda and Information Management is going to point at a variety of causes for the weak economy. It will be 9/11 or it will be the war on terrorism or it will be Wall Street or it will be Iraq or this and that. The last place they want us looking is at the government. It's the old blame game and big business or terrorism are easy targets.

9/11 was tragic, make no mistake about it but you sure can't blame it for the unraveling of a bubble economy.

Richard W.