What is Brit Hume thinking at this very moment?
September 6, 2005 7:52 AM

Heartless Bastard filter: Who stands to make beaucoup cash money from the New Orleans disaster?

Which companies or special interestes are going to see increased stock prices and mega-revenues from sales and services related to the relief and recovery efforts? Or even from rebuilding the Big Easy?

Please do keep this civil. I'm not trying to make a political point, nor am I wanting to provide a platform for others to do so.
posted by mds35 to Society & Culture (25 answers total)
Not so much companies, but people selling houses in the Baton Rouge area (last week, at least).

From the AP:

Nearly every house on the market before Katrina hit sold between Wednesday and Saturday. With 7,000 New Orleans residents in Baton Rouge-area shelters and countless others staying in the homes of friends and strangers, real estate agents are begging residents to sell.

"I had someone put in an offer $10,000 more than the asking price, and (the sellers) are still considering it," said one real estate agent, Kathleen Duval. "Usually people would just be dropping dead to accept that."
posted by kuperman at 7:58 AM on September 6, 2005


Georgia Pacific lumber.

Home Despot and Lowes.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:59 AM on September 6, 2005


I'd say its a good time to buy large swaths of land in New Orleans
posted by leapingsheep at 8:04 AM on September 6, 2005


What's the line from "Gone With the Wind," when Scarlett goes into the lumber business? "What most people don't seem to realize is that there is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one."
posted by GaelFC at 8:05 AM on September 6, 2005


Cemex, LaFarge, Caterpillar - anyone who will do more business as a result of reconstruction efforts, including the contractors who do the rebuilding work.
posted by nyterrant at 8:14 AM on September 6, 2005


Just a guess, and I can't say it's based on anything but my own paranoid suspicion, but Halliburton seems like the right answer to me. Or one of their subsidiaries.
posted by doctor_negative at 8:14 AM on September 6, 2005


Heartless Bastard filter

Erm, it's thanks to a capitalist economy that the place will get rebuilt properly. If there were no incentive to rebuild there in the form of higher prices and windfalls, then why would you bother dealing with NOLA instead of sticking to your current gig? That's why people who work in places like Saudi Arabia or Iraq get higher salaries, for instance.
posted by wackybrit at 8:22 AM on September 6, 2005


Off the top of my head here's a list of companies I'm sure will profit handsomely in due time.
posted by any major dude at 8:27 AM on September 6, 2005


I bought some Home Depot the day after... I already own some Halliburton.
posted by mosch at 8:40 AM on September 6, 2005


Insurance companies, long term at least.

As I watched the coverage on CNN, they described how insurance companies take a big hit intially, but then raise rates to cover their losses. Once their initial losses are covered, they just don't lower the rate as far or at all.

However, the company has to have the capital to absorb the first impact.
posted by karmaville at 8:43 AM on September 6, 2005


(Shaw Group more than Halliburton - they are HQ'd in Baton Rouge and apparently already have contracts)
posted by milkrate at 8:45 AM on September 6, 2005


  • What is Brit Hume thinking at this very moment?
  • I'm not trying to make a political point, nor am I wanting to provide a platform for others to do so.
Yeah, sure.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 8:48 AM on September 6, 2005


A Halliburton subsidiary has the contract to repair Gulf Coast militiary bases after a natural disaster. (But, hey, at least they had to bid on this one, unlike the Iraqi oil field firefighting contract.)
posted by Zed_Lopez at 8:57 AM on September 6, 2005


The Democratic National Committee, I strongly hope.
posted by rabbus at 9:02 AM on September 6, 2005


any major dude (or anyone else), why does the 13th entry in that opensecrets list say 'US Government'?
posted by erebora at 9:11 AM on September 6, 2005


rabbus: Me too, but that's not what I'm asking.

Steve_at_Linnwood: Brit Hume is not political, per se, is he? I felt a bit like him this morning when I began wondering about this. That's why the title. After being very judgemental about his "time to buy" comment, I now acknowledge the 2X4 in mine own eye.

wackybrit: Agreed, perhaps, but let's keep economic philosophy out of this, k? The "Heartless Bastard" is me because I am wondering about my 403b and whether it'll suffer. However, I must confess that the conspiracy theorist in me wants to follow the money.

any major dude: Now, now. Be nice.
posted by mds35 at 9:11 AM on September 6, 2005


Metal Management purchases steel and either recyles or resells it. I understand they did quite well buying the steel beams after 9/11.
posted by Mckoan1 at 9:50 AM on September 6, 2005




erebora - I assume that is the amount we contribute as matching funds.
posted by any major dude at 10:27 AM on September 6, 2005


Can you buy land in NO? It seems like it would be pretty cheap, and the government would clean it up for you, right? (or most of it). I wonder how someone would get ahold of some of that land.
posted by delmoi at 10:29 AM on September 6, 2005


I imagine the City of Houston is doing pretty well.
posted by panoptican at 11:40 AM on September 6, 2005


insurance companies take a big hit intially, but then raise rates to cover their losses.
Not always. Lloyds stopped writing flood insurance in the U.S. after the last batch of big hurricanes. I bet they're glad now.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:44 PM on September 6, 2005


Roofing shingles suppliers and installers. And anyone in the construction business, (obviously)
posted by DardanAeneas at 11:03 PM on September 6, 2005


O-Cel-O.
posted by rob511 at 4:30 AM on September 7, 2005


Wackybrit If there were no incentive to rebuild there in the form of higher prices and windfalls, then why would you bother dealing with NOLA instead of sticking to your current gig?

Because you are a human f*king being, have a shred of dignity, and you do things for other reasons than for love of money.

/sensitive
posted by eustatic at 10:06 AM on October 1, 2005


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