It's hard to believe it's been 8 years since the terrorist attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Do you remember what you were doing when it happened?

I was driving north on 294 on my way to work at NAII (now PCI) and listening to erstwhile Chicago radio shock-jock Mancow Muller gibbering about a plane hitting first one tower, then the second. By the time I walked into the office, the news about the Pentagon attack was being broadcast. My first thought was that a massive planned air attack was moving west, and that a downtown Chicago target would be next on the list.

Of course, there weren't any attacks on Chicago, but that didn't keep the events of that day from changing all of our lives, on both a professional and personal level. I recall spending the next week or so in a state of shock and uncertainty. When would another attack happen? Where was Osama bin Laden? Were there still people buried alive in the WTC rubble? How could insurance craft coverage and pricing to protect against similar events? And how could someone write about the impact of such an unprecedented event when history was still happening?

I wasn't alone. Both businesses and people were afraid to travel, conduct business, make long-term plans. 9/11 may not have launched the recession of the early 2000s, but it sure didn't help. In the aftermath, a burgeoning global recession went viral, following heady years of stock market growth, dot-com mania, and relief that we dodged the 1999 Y2K or Armegeddon bullet.

Ultimately, of course, insurance took a huge hit -- between property, business interruption, aviation, workers' comp, life and liability payouts, the cost came to almost $40 billion, according to III. The human cost was much higher. Zurich, Marsh and Aon, all of which had offices in the Twin Towers, had their share of fatalities among the almost 3,000 who died as a result of the attacks.

Today, in spite of a couple of wars and the Dept. of Homeland Security, we don't seem to be any safer. According to risk modeling firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS), potential insured losses from a terrorist attack rose 8 percent in 2008, based on the growing threat of chemical and biological attacks. (This doesn't even take into account the threat of cyber-terrorism, which could wreak more havoc on the civilized world than a dozen 9/11s).

We live in a world that has been unalterably changed because of what happened on 9/11. Today's children, many of whom can never know what things were like before the threat of global terrorism, can never comprehend the more carefree times we were lucky enough to have experienced. It's pretty sad when you have to pity the young.

Special Reports /

Toops Scoops: Musings on 9/11

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