The London Riots and the broken window

It is just a matter of time before the "broken windows fallacy" rears its ugly head in relation to the London riots. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bank of England or some politician or media pundit explains how the riots destruction will actually help the economy.

Just in case this meme of "destruction helping the economy" spreads, (where destruction equals war, riots, robbery, crime of any kind), this video explains the fallacy.

I first read about this fallacy in Henry Hazlitt's excellent book, "Economics in one lesson", where he introduces Frederic Bastiat's simple story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window