Final Cost of WGA Strike Less than Estimated

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/02/final-cost-of-w.html

By John Scott Lewinski EmailFebruary 20, 2008

According to E!, MSNBC and Fox News, the final cost of the Writers Guild strike was $2.5 billion in lost wages, damage to entertainment industry-reliant businesses and abandoned productions.

That's significantly less than the $3 billion to $5 billion experts thought the work stoppage. But, few are celebrating as that dollar figure represents genuine impact on people's lives such as mortgage foreclosures, tapped college funds, uprooted lives and, in some cases, forced career changes.

Time will tell how the strike hit the overall Los Angeles economy in the first quarter of 2008 -- and how long it will take region and the industry to recover.