How soon they forget...

The NABE Economic Policy Survey presents the consensus of a panel of 258 members of the National Association for Business Economics. Conducted semiannually, this survey was taken July 24-August 14, 2007.

The shocking result of the survey was:

"Financial market turmoil has shifted the focus away from terrorism and toward sub prime and other credit problems as the most important near-term threats to the U.S. economy,” says Carl Tannenbaum, NABE President and Chief Economist, La Salle Bank/ABN-AMRO. “However, these concerns appear to be somewhat transitory, as the five-year outlook for housing remains positive."

We have come far from 9/11 and the flag flying that we saw in the days, weeks and months that followed when the country was galvanized and girded for a war against terrorists and their sponsors. Now that it's harder to borrow money, terrorism is perceived as less of a threat? Makes no sense to me, but this is America, after all, and we Americans are sometimes incapable of thinking about anything other than how much the owner of Barry Bonds' 756th home run ball is going to make at auction.

The good thing about the real estate and stock markets is that they always correct themselves and come back to life. I wish I could say the same thing about terror victims. If we as a people divert our attention from the war on terror to mortgage interest rates, there will be more to pay than a higher monthly mortgage payment.

NABE Survey