Just like the price gouging bunk, I should have also seen this one coming--we have Greg Fields of the Miami Herald arguing, via the broken window fallacy, that Charley will actually make southwest Florida better off. If destroying a city/town/county actually makes it better off then why don't people just get some TNT instead of waiting for hurricanes?

If it seems illogical to think hurricanes make people better off, Roy Cordato reports on Timothy Noah's making the same argument about the WTC attack. Cordato also discusses the origins of the broken window fallacy.

Paul Krugman, who is annoying but is a good enough economist that he should know better, also made the same mistake following 9/11: "Ghastly as it may seem to say this, the terror attack - like the original day of infamy, which brought an end to the Great Depression - could do some economic good." (This quote comes via Walter Williams; for his full article click here.)

There may be even worse news for Florida taxpayers than my previous posting on government disaster assistance. Apparently the state has more or less socialized hurricane losses via a scheme to reimburse insurance companies. Read more here. As bad as this is, at least the people of Idaho aren't footing the bill.

A big hat tip to Dan Alban for forwarding much of this posting to me.

UPDATES: Cafe Hayek's Don Boudreaux has a superb posting on price gouging and a link to some good economics from Paul Krugman.