There are no words that can adequately describe or explain the events that took place here Sept. 11. Last weeks acts of terrorism snuffed out thousands of lives, shook the foundation of the worlds financial system and diminished our collective sense of security.
Some of us stood by helplessly watching the tragic events unfold before our very eyes. There was little we could do as the World Trade Center disappeared from existence in a cloud of smoke and ashes. We lost brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children, co-workers and friends. The pain and agony endured by those who lost their lives and their families and loved ones is inconceivable.
Nearly everyone working in the financial services industry has some tie to a person who was at ground zero. To the families and loved ones of survivors and those lost in the tragedy, the entire staff at Mutual Fund Market News offers our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies.
There were 430 companies whose offices were lost in last weeks tragedy. Of course, they included many mutual fund and asset management companies. Among them: Citigroup Asset Management; Credit Suisse First Boston; Deutsche Bank; Fiduciary Trust Co. International; Fred Alger Management; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; OppenheimerFunds; Friends Ivory & Sime; Cedar Capital Management and Bank of America.
That group of companies also included colleagues of ours at Thomson Financial, our parent company, not a small number of whom lost their lives.
In the coming days we will all struggle with returning to some semblance of a normality. Besides coping with the profound sense of loss, daily routines may not seem to hold the same sense urgency or importance in light of all that has come to pass. While most of us can only stand by and watch the more heroic actions of firefighters, police and rescue workers, each of us has a small part to play in rebuilding our lives and our routines.
To that end, the asset management business plays no small part in providing security and comfort to millions of Americans and other peoples around the world. That is something the terrorists have tried to deprive us of. We owe it our fallen colleagues and to ourselves, the living, to carry on.
