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Wall Street One Year After 9/11
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(SOUND: WALL STREET OUTDOOR AMBIENCE)

Moon: I watched somber-faced traders trade stories of that horrible day here, before they went inside and stood in silent tribute. Former mayor Rudy Giuliani rang the opening bell. On a trading day perhaps more subdued than usual, but sounding much like any other. So what, if anything, has changed here for the people who keep America's financial lifeblood flowing? I've been spending some time with a gray-haired veteran here on Wall Street to find out.

(VOICES, TRADING ON FLOOR:) "Have a bid for ten-thou…five-thou for 12…eight for a couple thou…five-thou 15. I'm going to cross 30 at 12…"

Moon: Ted Weisberg began roaming this floor back in 1969, when he started Seaport Securities. He's one of about 3,000 people who dash around here trading an average of $40 billion every business day.

(VOICE, TRADING:) "Buy one at 11…30-thou trades 12, you're on the paper… Thank you."

Moon: Over the past year, Weisberg has noticed one subtle difference: a gentler edge to transacting business, mostly unspoken, except in the immediate aftermath of those too-close-for-comfort attacks:

Weisberg: "There was a lot of warmth and a lot of hugging, and the words simply were, 'I'm happy to see you, I'm glad you're here.' I suspect, though maybe we don't verbalize it, I think that, subliminally, probably we all think it."

Moon: But since 9/11, those niceties have been matched with an intensity Weisberg hasn't seen in 32 years of trading:

Weisberg: "We are now forced to contend with headlines that we were never forced to contend with prior to 9/11. The prospect of a terrorist attack, of a biochemical attack…I mean, these were things that were not in our world, you know, prior to 9/11."

Moon: Weisberg thinks the lingering threat of terrorist attack is a sure, though immeasurable, factor in the market's recent volatility.

(CLOSING BELL)

Moon: Another trading day ended, Weisberg and I head outside to Wall Street, through security turnstiles that track everyone's comings-and-goings.

It's out here, in front of the famous columned facade, that the responses to 9/11 are most noticeable:

Weisberg: "The obvious change, as you can see, is we sort of live in this gated community, if you will, absent of any normal traffic -- with the exception of deliveries, obviously, that have to be made. But, I mean, you can just look at this street we're walking on: normally, this street would be filled with cars."

Moon: "Now, do these security precautions make you feel more secure?"

Weisberg: I think so. You know, we are told that the stock exchange is clearly a vulnerable institution. At the end of the day, I guess, if somebody wanted to get to you bad enough, they could find a way to do it. Hopefully, of course, that would never be the case."

Security guard: "Sir! You can't come in here, sorry!"

Moon: Every foot of sidewalk adjoining the exchange is off limits to all but those authorized. And, the exchange is so concerned about security, it's now looking to move half its operations away from here.

Weisberg: "I would rather not see this. I wish the streets were open and life were normal as I knew it for all the years I came here, but it's not -- it's changed. September 11th changed that. For the moment, this is clearly the way it has to be."

Moon: Weisberg heads into his office building just down the street, and in the tower's atrium, he maneuvers through still more security that didn't exist before last September.

(DOOR OPENS)

Moon: He was here in his office on that morning a year ago. A client who was watching TV in Bermuda alerted him on the phone to the scene unfolding a just few blocks away; Weisberg quickly called down to the exchange:

Weisberg: "I said, I'll be right down there because it's going to obviously be a very difficult morning, and we'd better make sure that we're fully staffed. And, I never really got to the exchange because by the time I got down to the street, the second plane had hit. There were papers and dirt and dust flying everywhere. People were running and scared, you know, just helter-skelter. Things just broke down from there."

(STREET SOUND)

Moon: Back on those same streets now, Weisberg is bitter that his own son and daughter, who both work for him, will always carry the trauma of escaping from that day's hell.

At first, I don't sense his reluctance when I suggest we walk up Wall Street toward Ground Zero, but he agrees to lead the way.

Weisberg: "This is when the scene will begin to change dramatically because, as we walk up Wall Street to Broadway, and we look to the northwest, the skyline is dramatically different. You can't help but feel sad."

Moon: So sad that I can't help but notice that, like most New Yorkers, Weisberg hardly looks at all. It's the way you can separate tourists from the locals down here.

Weisberg: "I don't spend a lot of time going up lower Broadway and looking to the northwest. It's quite painful to do that, and so I don't go out of my way to look."

Moon: Earlier, Weisberg had led me across the trading floor and placed my palm against an icy marble wall, joking that I could feel the heart of Wall Street. Then, he spoke seriously, with pride, of how the heart of Wall Street has kept beating through perhaps its most trying year, giving investors crucial confidence that the system works. But there is also that still-unhealed tear in so many hearts here, reflected in a new value that a lot of those Weisberg calls 'the lucky ones' now place on their own lives:

Weisberg: "I think Sept. 11th really made you kind of refocus what your priorities are. Now, I'm 62 years old -- I've been doing this a long time. I don't know that I'm about to retire, but I think that, in terms of how important the business is, compared to the other things going on in my life or around me, perhaps coming to Wall Street is not quite as important as it used to be."

Moon: Between Wall Street and Ground Zero, I'm Bob Moon for Marketplace.

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