Interesting. I think the time is long past for a serious cost-benefit analysis of the security measures we're all paying for. However, this analysis is very very complicated and the article oversimplifies the cost of a terrorist attack. It's not just about the lives lost, but also about the economic damage: to the New York area economy, to the travel industry, etc. due to the perhaps irrational reactions of people to an attack. That's why it's called terrorism after all.

Similar complicating factors enter in to the analysis of , for example, health care costs, which is what makes the whole excercise of comparing health care dollars to security dollars a political rather than an economic question.

Once you've decided to commit resources to security, however, serious analysis of where those resources will do the most good is required and long overdue.

Michael