Volcanic Eruptions

See Icelandic broadcaster's videos of the volcanic eruption. I recommend the video at the second link.

I see that a Lufthansa representative complained that the German government should not have relied on the British data and that the German government should have done it its own testing. I'm betting that the Brits (and other European governments) overreacted.

But there is an upside: Perhaps regular transatlantic passenger boat travel will return.

"But German officials defended their decision to close the skies. 'What’s more important, the safety of passengers or business?' asked Mr. Malewski of the German Weather Service." NYTimes article (April 17, 2010). It might be noted, however, that the decision to close the skies was not costless. Did the decision cost or shorten some lives? (For example, was the shipment of some medical supplies delayed?) And should we assume that the estimated $200,000,000 in daily losses to the airlines would all have been spent on spas by wealthy vacationing airline executives? (I'm not much of an economist but I think it's bit too simple to say that the tradeoff is the value of lives versus the value of business.)

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