October 20, 2011: The "Arab Spring" uprisings this year led to the fall of several long time dictatorships, and a rush to reform (or give the appearance of such) by most other Arab governments. But this was not without cost, and it isn't over (especially in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Algeria). Over 25,000 have died so far, and many more were wounded, imprisoned or driven from their homes. The financial cost, so far, has been over $100 billion. About half of that is the destruction of buildings and possessions, or lost GDP. These lost wages have been particularly difficult for populations that were poor to begin with. The rest of the cost was money wealthier monarchies and dictatorship have spent money (sometimes borrowed) to placate their restless populations.