What effect will losing New Orleans, 1M+ refugees, have on our economy?

[expatriot]

Oil: Major disruption of domestic gulf production and Venezualan imports.

Midwest agricultural and manufacturing exports: Grains and finished goods from the Ohio-Mississippi-Missouri River valleys enter the global market through New Orleans.

Imports: New Orleans is a major international port with major trade goin both directions.

Rail network: New Orleans serves as a hub for rail traffic, especially across the South.

Communication-Information Networks: What, if any, effects will the loss of New Orleans have on our nation's communication networks?

New Orleans is the nation's 35th largest metro area but it's role in our nation's economy seems pretty critical.

[JDPriestly]

1. People in NO and environs will suffer most,

but none of us will be spared. Maybe this will teach Americans that "No man is an island." Republicans do not seem to understand that it really does take a village, a nation and a world, not only to raise a child but to make life healthy and safe.

[Selatius]

7. Republicans hate cooperation; they love competition instead

Competition to see who can beat who into the ground to win control. The second you start talking about pooling resources for a cause to benefit all as an alternative, they call you a godless socialist who deserves to be killed.

[wli]

2. probably catastrophe

Screw up a port, explode a bunch of refineries, etc.

[Erika]

3. I think the verdict is still out

They've loaded the poorest, the sickest, and the most needy in the dome.

[CountAllVotes]

6. I have ...

a very bad feeling about that act. Let's hope the feeling is wrong. :( :scared:

:dem: :kick:

[politicat]

4. Communication and IT are not in NOLA.

That's where we get lucky.

The MCI MAE facilities that serve that area are in Dallas (Mae Central) and Miami (Mae East 5).

I guess we deserve some luck....

[AlGore-08.com]

5. A big part of whatever problems occur is that addressing them

Will add to the Federal deficit and to the deficits in various states.

[cliss]

8. Answer = it's going to be catastrophic.

The U.S. economy is desperately dependent on oil. Without it, we go back to the Stone Age, or at least the horse-and-buggy period before the automobile.

EVERY aspect of our society runs on oil. We're willing to kill for it. We're willing to wage war & bankrupt ourselves in order to secure it.

That's why they'll be up all night in Washington, bracing for the worst. Oil has already moved past $70/barrel.

Now, the prospect of 1 million refugees is also horrible. Especially since our N. Guardsmen are in Iraq, setting up an Islamic state there.

Thanks for nothing, Bastard Bush.

[newswolf56]

9. Depends on the destruction to port and transshipment facilities.

Something like 15 percent of the nation's oil imports comes in via facilities around New Orleans, and if that is shut off for any length of time, it could literally destroy the entire U.S. economy: permanently -- exactly as implied by the cable-TV movie Oil Storm. The fallout from such a port shut-down would include the collapse of the national transportation system and resulting national shortages of food and medicine -- shortages potentially large enough to inflict Third-World type famine.

The real horror in this context is the Bush Administration concept of governance -- absolute protection for the oligarchy, absolute exploitation and enslavement for all the rest of us: the essence of the legislation he has already enacted, the re-imposition of indentured servitude via the so-called "bankruptcy law," the perversion of social services into a profit center to reward his cronies via the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord Benefit. After the economy begins collapsing, martial law would be imposed to "maintain order" -- and then quite possibly never again lifted, thereby terminating forever the American electoral process. This to ensure the oligarchy lives (as always) in obscene wealth and comfort, while all the rest of us are reduced to the sort of lethal poverty that, until now, was seen only in the Third World. It would be the end of America as anything save a private, gated preserve (for the oligarchy) and a slave-labor camp (for the rest of us). Obviously this is a worst-case scenario, but given the proven malevolence of this administration, it is probably unavoidable if Katrina wreaks the predicted havoc.

[Porcupine]

10. Economy fall down go boom. Selloff starting now....

see this thread: Dow, Nasdaq futures are going through the floor

Remember the economy has been in deep trouble for some time. We are absolutely dependent on deficit spending for continued function before a disaster or a oil price shock. Now we're screwed.

Buy some seed potatoes and kale seed. It's going to get hungry in the U.S. of A.

[opihimoimoi]

11. Over $70.00 per barrel now...forecast. $80 to 150 soon.

Dismal....bad luck on a bad luck prez....

[KamaAina]

12. On our *economy*?!

How about on our nation as a whole?!

The French (yeah, I know :sarcasm: ) say that there are only two truly American art forms: the Western movie -- and jazz.

I am not ready to wake up tomorrow morning to find that that has been reduced to just the Western movie. :scared: