Find solution
What happen to Geo City?

Nuclear Disasters: What would happen to the world economy if New York City would be nuked or destroyed by a terrorist attack?

  • Also see:

  • Answer:

    Nothing permanent, though nothing is ever permanent. In the short term, like weeks, everything would shut down. In the 1 month to a year, the world economy would probably be plunged into a deep recession. From beyond a year, who knows. You're not just dealing with the destruction of arguably the world's most powerful city (sometimes tied with London, and the next nearest competitor is quite a ways away), the very nerves and confidence of every American (the largest economy) would be completely destroyed.  Furthermore, NYC is an international city with citizens and ambassadors and representatives from around the world.  They'd be destroyed.  The global economic ripples would be catastrophic to say the least.  If the city could be rebuilt and decontaminated (which I think it would), it would likely regain it's position as a first-rate global city, but many of the entities that made NYC the de facto capital of the planet would have moved away, permanently and would likely return only slightly (as in, setting up an office).  London would, once again, be the world's capital city (IMHO) and given the nature of things, I doubt it would cede it again before the nature of technology makes such an entity irrelevant (my guess:  the middle of the century).  Even great cities like Shanghai, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Tokyo would not be able to obtain such a status because to do so would require a lot of shifting to those cities needlessly (in an era of instantaneous communication) from London (which happens to be the co-orbiter of banking and commerce along with NYC).  This would not be a "win" for London, though.  London and NYC form a powerful sister-axis of commerce and trade between two of the world's leading trading partners (USA-Europe) and it's not entirely certain that said commerce would withstand such a strike.  More likely it would diffuse around the world.  More importantly, such an occurrence would forever damage "faith" and "security" in highly populated cities.  In free societies, many cities would suffer because of fear of being trapped in a nuclear death-trap.  In the end, it might mark the end of the era of may American cities.

Dan Holliday at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

My photo of NYC from about 25,000' Population of NYC 18,900,000 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area#section_5 Financial hub for the world. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_centre#section_3 The death toll would be an immediate 5 to 10 million people. The rest of the world would go into turmoil and panic. There would be calls for peace, at the same time, calls for unity. It would be very destabilizing for daily activities around the world. Various groups and factions would be blamed. There is a strong sense that retaliation would be the U.S. Military's next move. Borders would be placed on high alert. Travel would be only military and emergency movements. Citizens would grid lock highways away from ground zero, travel would be ground to a halt. Currency markets would collapse as the dollar is traded all over the world. Communications would be difficult since the military would have priority. The Internet would shut down from over demand. It would be viewed as a civilization altering event and may take 10 to 20 years to get back to a new normal.

Tom Byron

It is an event driven shock that would collapse the markets. It would NOT make the markets go into recession because in the fight club the PEOPLE were left alive. So ultimately there would be a rebound, but there will not be a recession due to the destruction of the real estate.

Mark Savchuk

First of all, there is a huge difference between a nuclear war and the terrorism of Fight Club.   In FC, they destroy several buildings containing the records of credit card companies.  When dealing with financial records of this volume, the companies keep numerous levels of backup data, and not all of it is in one city.  Eliminating all records for all of these companies is unlikely.  Even if this were so, some level of data remains.  Your credit records include details about the amount of debt you owe.  It would be a significant blow and cause chaos, but within a couple of years they would have dealt with the majority of cases.   Nuking NYC would depopulate much of the Northeast.  Even beyond the actual damge is the area where weather can spread the radiation.  Beyond that, many people will choose to relocate out of fear.    NYC is a transit hub.  Trains and planes move through there, connecting the whole region and country.  It's a major port as well.  All of this will be disrupted.    NYC is an economic hub.  It has many financial exchanges and the headquarters of many companies in many industries are located there.  While most major companies have offsite backups, they lose many important people.    Geopolitical fallout.  NYC is the home of the United Nations.  That organization would be hit severely at a time when national tensions would be running high.  There will be a lot of global effort to find the perpetrator and bring them to justice.  If the real culprit isn't identified quickly, people will start pointing fingers.  And missiles.  It's hard to estimate the chances, but one nuclear weapon might lead to a larger exchange.    Assuming that we don't start WWIII, I see the destruction of NYC causing ripples for decades.  While it will shake the world economy, it won't destroy it.

Miguel Valdespino

It would plummet. The World Trade Center as well as the UN and many consolates and Wall Street is located in NYC, it would throw the world economy into a downward spiral, as well as killing 10,000,000+ people and throwing the US most likely into a huge (whether nuclear or conventional) war.

Nick Pietrucha

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.