Wall Street Journal notes what biz media missed post 9/11

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs likes a recent Wall Street Journal story that laid out why the business media missed the story about what was happening with the economy after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Fuchs wrote, “The Journal just laid out the simple facts — so counterintuitive to those jumping to conclusions at the time — that had the economy humming instead of hurting in the years after Sept. 11, 2001.

“Security costs were a false worry because while the risk of terrorism might have been great, it was spread across society.

“With apologies to Coke’s secret formula, no one company had too much to protect.

“Technology couldn’t, as was predicted with near unanimity in the late 1990s (don’t get me started), forestall any recession by allowing companies to manage inventories perfectly. But by 2001, companies were still benefiting from a degree of added efficiency. If they had to hire a few sleepy security rent-a-cops or post some cameras, hey, they could swing it.

“The larger point is that the best way to fight against the business media getting future issues this wrong is to highlight what went wrong in the past and why.”

Read more here.