Facts Are Durable Things: George Bush and the Economic Legacy of 9-11

U.S. News and World Report economics writer James Pethokoukis, whose e-mail list I somehow managed to get signed-up for a few months ago, without having done anything in particular, has been on a roll lately--in a good way. His piece today is important to consider in light of the old and tired class-warfare and Bush-bashing rhetoric Democrats are already starting to trot out in preparation for 2008. Pethokoukis writes:

Six years ago, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda weren't just attempting to bring down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They were trying to smash the American economy... [Yet] since September 11, the economy hasn't suffered a single down quarter. In fact, it has notched 23 straight quarters of economic growth. (And despite the subprime mortgage crisis, this is likely to be the 24th straight quarter of growth.) Those numbers are especially amazing when you consider that when the terrorist attacks happened, the Internet stock bubble was in full implosion mode...

Overall, the American economy is, adjusting for inflation, $1.65 trillion bigger than it was six years ago. To put that gigantic number in some perspective, the U.S. economy has added the equivalent of five Saudi Arabias, eight Irans, 13 Pakistans, or 15 Egypts... the Dow is 37 percent higher than it was on Sept. 10, 2001, creating trillions of dollars of new wealth for Americans. What's more, the unemployment rate is 4.6 percent today vs. 5.7 percent back then.

Resilient. It's a unique feature of our economy, our nation and most importantly, our people and thus it's a blind spot not only for the Islamofascists and their rigid world views, but also for the gloom-and-doom, America-hating crowd that's unfortunately synonymous with much of the Euro-worshipping left these days. (Just for example, domestic poverty statistics seldom take into account how many people pass through poverty on the way to something more pleasant and sustainable. That's resilience. The left would like you to believe they are all perennial victims.)

In a completely different vein, the article made me think about a project I worked on in the months after 9-11, helping to clean up some of the IT and telecoms infrastructure that broke when the towers went down. I was privy to some "inside dope" on how that event affected the workings of a sensitive focal point of the American economy, namely Wall Street and it was enough to keep me up nights for months, knowing that that vulnerability still existed and that it would be unbelievably easy to exploit if our enemies knew of it and had a few more airplanes or well-placed trucks filled with explosives.

I know all too well how close Bin Laden came to accomplishing his objective--for reasons, and by means he never suspected. And the answer is: just a few hundred yards and a little more reconnaissance. Sometimes I like to imagine him finding this out after the fact and tearing his hair out at how close he came.

I'll leave that one deliberately vague except to note that blowing up Wall Street itself wouldn't have made that much difference. Two other very specific targets nearby that very few know about would have brought the overwhelming majority of securities trading, clearing and settlement to a complete halt until Christmas of that year. At least. It would not be giving Wall Street undue credit to observe that we would be living in a virtual stone age by now if that had happened. Fortunately, those vulnerabilities have since been fixed in some tremendously clever ways.

Fortunately, an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. Fortunately, God has chosen to bless America. For now. That's not a reason to gloat with jingoistic glee (far from it), but neither is it a reason to let the Democrats send us cowering back to a state of fearful and selfish isolationism and short-sighted fiscal policies.