When the planes hit the twin towers eight years ago this week, I wasn't a journalist at all, but a business economist living in London. It was my job to look at what was happening to the economy and figure out what it might imply and what might happen next. Alongside the shock experienced by anyone watching the television coverage, I felt bewilderment. It seemed that the sheer physical destruction and the deaths of so many highly skilled people would have to disrupt the running of the US economy – one of Osama bin Laden's declared objectives. But with no close precedents, it was hard to say by how much.
8年前，當飛機撞上雙子塔的時候，我還壓根兒不是新聞工作者，而是一名住在倫敦的商業經濟學家。我的工作是觀察各種經濟事件，搞清楚其中可能的含意，以及接下來可能會發生什麼。除了每一個收看電視報導的人都有的震驚，我還感到了困惑。純粹的物質破壞和這麼多高技能人才喪生，似乎必然會擾亂美國經濟的正常運行——這也是奧薩馬•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)所宣揚的目的之一。但由於近年來尚無先例，很難判斷其影響程度。