The hidden effects of terrorism

According to economists Dubner and Levitt of Freakonomics fame:

In just the three months following the attacks, there were one thousand extra traffic deaths in the United States. Why? One contributing factor is that people stopped flying and drove instead. Per mile, driving is much more dangerous than flying. Interestingly, however, the data show that most of these extra traffic deaths occurred not on interstates but on local roads, and they were concentrated in the Northeast, close to the terrorist attacks. Furthermore, these fatalities were more likely than usual to involve drunken and reckless driving. These facts, along with myriad psychological studies of terrorism’s aftereffects, suggest that the September 11 attacks led to a spike in alcohol abuse and post- traumatic stress that translated into, among other things, extra driving deaths.

Such trickle- down effects are nearly endless. Thousands of foreign born university students and professors were kept out of the United States because of new visa restrictions after the September 11 attacks. At least 140 U.S. corporations exploited the ensuing stock- market decline by illegally backdating stock options. In New York City, so many police resources were shifted to terrorism that other areas— the Cold Case Squad, for one, as well as anti- Mafia units— were neglected. A similar pattern was repeated on the national level. Money and manpower that otherwise would have been spent chasing financial scoundrels were instead diverted to chasing terrorists— perhaps contributing to, or at least exacerbating, the recent financial meltdown.