Well, to be fair, Todd Howard did make some kind of claim that we could destroy an economy by sabotaging a lumber mill. I'm guessing they took that possibility out.
This.
Todd has a tendency to blow the capabilities of the game way out of proportion. You have to take everything he says with a bag of salt. The way he acted, it sounded like a very dynamic economy, with prices that fluctuate based on player actions, supply and demand between regions, and even base industry that could produce supply.
But of course, it's nothing like that.