It looks as though the impact on business costs from Hurricane Rita is going to be minimal. Clearly that's easy to type when you're in London, where nature is essentially benign and your home and livelihood hasn't been at risk, but the oil prices fell back yesterday so it seems there won't be an immediate hurricane-induced economic crisis.
What is more likely is that, as with man-made disasters, we'll go through a period of more tentative attitudes towards our money and productivity. Events like this make us realise how interdependent the world economies actually are, and how vulnerable they all are to events completely beyond anyone's control.
It's a sobering thought. And when our economy at least is so mired in credit and a promise that we'll pay tomorrow, it's not a pleasant one.
