The world-wide tally of billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2013 is 25

[phantom power]

1) Flooding, Central Europe, 5/30 - 6/6, $22 billion
2) Drought, Brazil, 1/1 - 5/31, $8.3 billion
3) Drought, Central and Eastern China, 1/1 - 7/31, $6.0 billion
4) Flooding, Calgary, Alberta Canada, 6/19 - 6/24, $5.3 billion
5) Flooding, China, 8/9 - 9/5, $5.0 billion
6) Tornado, Moore, OK, and associated U.S. severe weather, 5/18 - 5/22, $4.5 billion
6) Flooding, China, 7/7 - 7/17, $4.5 billion
8) Flooding, Indonesia, 1/20 - 1/27, $3.31 billion
9) Super Typhoon Utor, China and Philippines, 8/12 - 8/15, $2.6 billion
10) Flooding, Australia, 1/21 - 1/30, $2.5 billion
11) Flooding, Philippines, 8/18 - 8/21, $2.2 billion
12 Tornadoes and severe weather, U.S., 5/26 - 6/2, $2 billion
12) Severe weather, Midwest U.S., 3/18 - 3/20, $2 billion
14) Flooding, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 8/3 - 8/31, $1.9 billion
15) Winter weather, Europe, 3/12 - 3/31, $1.8 billion
16) Drought, New Zealand, 1/1 - 5/10, $1.6 billion
16) Severe weather, U.S., 4/7 - 4/11, $1.6 billion
18) Flooding, Toronto, Canada, 7/8, $1.45 billion
19) Flooding, China, 6/29 - 7/3, $1.4 billion
19) Flooding, China, 7/21 - 7/25, $1.4 billion
21) Flooding, Argentina, 4/2 - 4/4, $1.3 billion
22) Flooding, India and Nepal, 6/14 - 6/18, $1.1 billion
23) Winter weather, U.S. Plains, Midwest, Northeast, 2/24 - 2/27, $1.0 billion
23) Severe weather, U.S. Plains and Midwest, 8/5 - 8/7, $1.0 billion
23) Flooding, Russia, 8/4 - 8/31, $1.0 billion

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2531

[shraby]

1. They should also have added the cost in human lives.

[Nihil]

3. Human lives are pitifully cheap. "Decision makers" operate in dollars.

(Or pounds, yen, Euros, whatever)

[GliderGuider]

2. Big deal! It's just inflation. That's only $10,000 in constant dollars...

Last edited Mon Sep 23, 2013, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)

From the year 1600.

[happyslug]

4. Not quite that bad, but the world would be better off if that was true.

That is about 80 billion dollars, That would be about 6 billion in 1800 dollars

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi

3 1/3 billion Dollars is 1913 Dollars:

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

We also must understand that prior to 1913 the dollar was set at $20 to an ounce of Gold (and would stay that rate till 1934 when it went to $35 to an ounce of gold, where it would stay till 1970 when the Dollar price in terms of gold was left up to the market).

List of the price of gold from 1833 till today. Please note the chart is from a gold bug site, I am using it to show the price stability of gold, but you have to realize that stability was a result of a US Government policy to keep prices of the gold in terms of dollar the same. This price did not change even with the massive gold discovery in California (Which should have seen a DROP in the price of gold, i.e. more increase in the supply of gold should have lead to a drop in the price of gold, but it did not). The same with the discovery of Gold in Alaska, South Africa and Australia in the late 1890s, we should have seen a drop in the price of gold, but we did not. We should have also seen an increase in the price of Gold from about 1865 till 1898, but we did not, and again that was the result of Government Policy NOT some inherit stability about the price of gold.

http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf

This stability in the price of gold was due to the US Government selling gold when gold prices in term of dollars were to high, and buying gold when the price of gold in terms of dollars was to low. This policy lead to a massive expenditure of money in the 1850s as the California gold entered the world market, and a massive withdraw of that spending when the supply of California gold dried up in the 1860s. During the US Civil War, the US Government gave up the Gold Standard, as did the Waring powers during WWI, they left the price of gold go through the roof so they could spend money. Once the war was over efforts was made to return to the Gold Standard and in the US this lead to the "Long Depression" of the 1870s, 1880s and while into the 1890s. The economy booms in the late 1890s due to inflation caused by the entrance into the world market of Gold from Alaska, South Africa and Australia. Europe never realy recovered from the Recession of 1920-1921 and one of the Causes of the Great Depression was England's return to the Gold Standard in 1925 (The Great Depression would have been less "Great" had England NOT tried to go back to the Gold Standard, Winston Churchill would call going back to the Gold Standard in 1925 his greatest mistake).

Just a comment that the price of these disasters would have been about the same in 1600 or 1900 due to the embrace of the Gold Standard between those two dates. It is only with the abandonment of the Gold Standard do to have steady inflation, something most economists think is good (Like medicine, a little bit does a lot of good a lot does a lot of harm). Right now the US economy needs inflation but Congress is NOT doing anything to get inflation going (Money to main street and the working class NOT wall street).

Such a stimulus program, which could be aimed around reducing CO2 would do more good for the economy then giving money away to the banks, like we have been.