corrente

It's an ill wind ...

In the United States, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are seen as the catalyst for a period of fear, war and economic worry.

But in the oil-rich Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, Sept. 11 is increasingly viewed as the event that kicked off a galloping economic boom, when Arabs divested from America and reinvested at home.

Arab investors pulled pull tens of billions of dollars out of the United States. They were angered by perceived American hostility toward Arabs. They worried their assets would be frozen by U.S. counter-terror measures. And U.S. markets happened to be plummeting while economies in the Gulf were on the upswing, buoyed by rising oil prices.

The results have been spectacular.

Since late 2001, economies in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries - Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - have soared, with stock markets up a collective 400 percent. Over the same period, the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 24 percent.

Most of the credit for the wealth influx here is due to the near-tripling of oil prices since 2001 to current levels of more than $67 a barrel.
(via AP)

So, all things work together for good, don't they? After 9/11, all the Arabs get rich, and the Republicans get to abolish the Bill of Rights, start putting a theocracy in place, and dominate all three branches of of government, completely disenfranching 50% of the population. Really, what's not to like? Mission accomplished!