Marketplace: News Archives

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

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Wall Street One Year After 9/11
Marketplace New York Bureau Chief Bob Moon goes to Wall Street to see how the economic pulse of U.S. business has kept beating through perhaps its most trying year.
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Value of a Life - Part One
Marketplace host David Brancaccio starts a series of conversations about how we value human life in modern America. With the anniversary of the Sep. 11th attacks, we are reminded of the families asked to put a dollar value on their loved ones. David talks with Lynn Castrianno, who lost her brother in the attacks on the World Trade Center, and the Special Master of the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund, Kenneth Feinberg, about the necessary calculations involved in the efforts to compensate victim's families for their losses.
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Value of a Life - Part Two
There are, of course, alternatives to the fund, and those alternatives include the wrongful death lawsuit. We talk with law professor and historian Tom Russell about the history of the wrongful death lawsuit in the American legal system. And, Marketplace contributor Adam Davidson talks about his experiences with insurance adjusters, and how much his life would be worth in a settlement. Then, economists try their hand at coming up with precise calculations for the value of a life, but with a different purpose in mind. James Hammitt, professor of Economics and Decision Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, discusses how an economist might come up with a dollar value. David Salvo, who lost his father in the Sept. 11th attack on the World Trade Center, weighs in with a testimonial on the priceless nature of what his family has lost. And, from Trinity Church on Wall Street, Reverend Daniel Matthews talks about why we feel the need to come up with a specific amount at all -- and what it means, morally.
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Market Numbers/News
On our Sept. 11th broadcast, Marketplace focused on the effects of the attacks on the world's financial center, and host David Brancaccio explored "The Value of a Life" in a special report. To preserve the integrity of the broadcast, and in keeping with the tone and spirit of the day, we present the rest of the day's business news below. Tomorrow, Marketplace's regular broadcast will resume with the day's business news and “the numbers.”

The country went about its business a bit more slowly than usual on this first anniversary of the terror attacks. This morning, Americans at work, in school and at home paused for silent reflection at the hour hijacked passenger planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a rural Pennsylvania field one year ago today. Memorial services were held at all three locations, and in thousands more nationwide. Outside the Pentagon, President Bush somberly pledged that the United States military will “win the war that began here.”

Domestic markets were subdued after an opening delayed by this morning’s memorials. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a quarter percent, or 21 points, to close at 8581. The NASDAQ dropped a third of a percent, or 4 points, to close at 1315. The S&P 500 slipped less than one-tenth of a percent.

Bonds fell, pushing the yield on 10-Year Treasury Notes up to 4.06 percent.

European stocks ended trading at their highest level in two weeks. London’s Financial Times Stock Exchange was up eight-tenths of a percent. The Paris CAC gained almost 3 percent, and the Frankfurt DAX picked up 2.5 percent. Tokyo’s Nikkei Average ticked up just under 1 percent.

New York’s Federal Reserve president urged corporate executives today to volunteer for pay cuts. During a speech today at Trinity Church, near the World Trade Center site, William McDonald questioned the moral justification for the current level of CEO salaries and benefits. He said they need to be scaled back to “more reasonable and justifiable levels.” His declaration that executive pay is excessive is the strongest criticism leveled so far by a public official. McDonough said voluntary pay cuts from the chief officers of leading publicly traded companies would benefit shareholders and strengthen the U.S. economy.

The Federal Reserve reported today that the U.S. economy coped with slow and uneven growth in the late summer. Steel and auto manufacturing were strong, but the tech sector and some retail continued to falter. The quarterly survey by the Fed’s 12 regional banks may influence policymakers to cut interest rates for the first time this year, if they consider it necessary to boost the economy. The next Fed meeting is Sept. 24th.

The United States, and many of its outposts abroad, observed this day under a high state of alert after warnings of potential terror attacks on this anniversary.

The military expanded its jet fighter patrols over at least 10 American cities. Overseas, nine U.S. embassies closed today. The Bush administration referred to credible intelligence that, widely dispersed, unsophisticated strikes might occur against American interests around the world, particularly in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In Europe, three U.S. embassies and four consulates received envelopes containing an un-identified white powder in the mail. The packages have been quarantined for testing. None of those diplomatic posts were shut down.