Storm Stimulus

   Conservative economics maintains that recovery is best accomplished at the local level by private enterprise, without government interference.
   By this premise, New Jersey Shore towns and businesses should be left alone to recover as they may, with only their own resources to support redevelopment efforts. However, the fury of the storm has destroyed much of the shoreline and many of the homes and businesses based there. Lower Manhattan is flooded, and nearly a hundred homes in other boroughs were destroyed by fire. There is widespread destruction in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, as well as heavy snowstorm damage in West Virginia and other states.
   Nevertheless, recovery efforts should be done at the local level, say the conservatives. And ideally, recovery should be delegated to private enterprise. There is no need or rationale for a federal coordinating agency.
   Reality check: Localities and states do not have resources sufficient to handle the extent of the devastation, and competition in the private sector will allocate resources only to those with the money to pay. Not to mention a lack of coordination. No money, no help. Go away.

   The federal government can and should step in to help coordinate and assist relief efforts, since only a larger agency has the resources and the funds needed to do so.
   And amid all the destruction, here's a positive note. Many thousands of workers will get jobs clearing, repairing, renovating and rebuilding the areas where Hurricane Sandy struck. Cooperation and coordination is needed among local, state and federal authorities, along with private contractors to recover from the storm.
   Hurricane Sandy was one of the most ill of ill winds. But recovery can bring a good lesson.
   Laissez-faire economics doesn't cut it.

   MESSY METAPHORS -- "The Boardwalk has been washed away," said the TV reporter as the camera showed a pile of lumber. Had the Boardwalk really been "washed away," there would be no pile of lumber to view.
   The streets "are inundated by sand." Except that sand buries. Only water can inundate.