Economic and Societal Impact of 9/11 Attacks

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were horrific and traumatic events that affected not only the United States but had global ramifications as well. The events of that day produced immediate and long term effects on numerous aspects of society. The human tragedy in the loss of human life was immeasurable. The societal effects of 9/11 continue to be present even today as the war against terror continues. It is difficult to measure the societal impacts, but the economic cost of the attacks, have been and continue to be measured. Prior to the attack on 9/11, the United States was rebounding from a recession. For seven months before the attack, there had been a minor recession due to the effects of the dot-com crash of 2000 (Greenspan 5). The recession stemmed from a bursting bubble, coupled with declining consumer confidence and predatory lending (New). The bursting bubble referred to the

The morning of September 11, 2001 began with the hijacking of four planes from Boston’s Logan airport. The goal of the fateful event was to cripple the United States economy by destroying what was considered to be the center of its power, Wall Street, the Pentagon and the White House (Amadeo). The terrorists successfully hit one of their targets, both towers of the American Trade Center, by 9 AM the morning of September 11th. The Pentagon in Washington D.C. was the next target with American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into it around 9:30 AM. The last plane, Flight 93, which was headed for targets in Washington, either the White House or the Capitol Building, crashed into western Pennsylvania after the passengers attacked the terrorists on board (Amadeo). The death total was staggering, 2975 people died in the attacks on September 11, 2001. This number surpassed the number of people who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 1941