But in addition, land has been damaged by subsidence, lateral spread, cliff collapse and by soil liquefaction, all of which present major technical, insurance and economic problems for rebuild. It has proved very difficult to calculate the complete cost of the damage resulting from the earthquakes, and we found that early cost estimates could be unreliable.
It is the general human experience that when confronted with uncertainty, whether in financial markets or in any other aspect of life, disengagement is the normal protective reaction. In markets that are net long, the most general case, disengagement brings falling prices.