NO $

August 31, 2005 2:31 AM

How much economic activity did New Orleans generate?

There's going to be a big fat hole in the economy regardless of any of other effects of the hurricane. I'd like to now the dollar amount.

posted by raaka to grab bag (10 comments total)

The most recent number I heard was $150B/yr. People have been going on in the press about $500K/day lost in _tax_ revenue from the casino boats being out of commision. Obviously, corroboration would be useful.
posted by effugas at 4:33 AM on August 31, 2005

According to this document, the port alone accounted for $13B in spending and 100K jobs throughout the state.

Mardi Gras claims to bring in a billion in spending as well.
posted by effugas at 5:31 AM on August 31, 2005

effugas: that $500k/day refers to the casinos in Biloxi.
posted by delmoi at 7:40 AM on August 31, 2005

the $500k in lost tax revenue was from gulfport and biloxi casinos, not the ones in new orleans.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 7:51 AM on August 31, 2005

Note that when you here foo event brings in foo dollars to the local economy they are counting the money five times.
posted by Mitheral at 11:17 AM on August 31, 2005

Gasoline has already hit $3.44 this morning here, if that counts.
posted by zerolives at 11:27 AM on August 31, 2005

The other thing that's rarely factored in these kinds of numbers is that the money that doesn't get spent in these places doesn't disappear completely. If people cann't gamble on a riverboat in Biloxi, they'll gamble at a casino in Las Vegas. If they can't go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, they'll go to Spring Break in Daytona. Numbers like that are useful in terms of impact to the local economy (no Mardi Gras, no Mardi Gras dollars in NO), but in terms of the national economy they don't have nearly the same impact, because people are still going to spend money on gambling and travel and eating out and such - they'll just spend it elsewhere.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:04 PM on August 31, 2005

Per capita gross domestic product is estimated around $33,852. With a 2004 MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) population of 1.34 million people:

1 340 000 * 33 582 = 44 999 880 000

New Orleans contributed about 45 billion dollars to the gross domestic product every year.
posted by evariste at 3:41 PM on August 31, 2005

For reference, I think the total US GDP is something like 10 or 11 trillion dollars.
posted by evariste at 4:05 PM on August 31, 2005

There's going to be a big fat hole in the economy regardless of any of other effects of the hurricane.

That depends on how you measure "the economy."

It's usually measured in terms of the total money spent (e.g. GDP) without regard to how it is spent. With these measures, huge disasters like this generally come across as a benefit to the economy because a lot of money is spent (e.g. on rebuilding) that otherwise would not have been spent.
posted by winston at 6:05 PM on August 31, 2005