Railroad Strike Threat Blocked as Obama Creates Review Board

President Barack Obama appointed a board to review a dispute between U.S. freight railroads including Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe and most of their unions, averting a threatened strike for at least two months.

The move follows an Oct. 3 vote by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen to strike at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. A national rail strike would cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion a day, according to an estimate by the Washington-based Association of American Railroads.