Spotted just now: what might be the first story claiming that the hurricane (actually the flooding caused by bad public infrastructure) will be good for the economy. It is from the New York Times/International Herald Tribuine (dated Sept 1):
But economists point out that although Katrina has destroyed a lot of accumulated wealth, it ultimately will probably have a positive effect on growth data over the next few months as resources are channeled into rebuilding.
“Longer term, in the wake of a number of hurricanes there is actually an increase in measured output that even shows up at the national level, because there is a whole bunch of rebuilding activity,” said Stephen P.A. Brown, director of energy economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
