Markets Reopen After September 11

The 1)twin towers were not just symbols of American finance, the people who worked there were at the very heart of it, like the small investment banking 1 firm of Sandler-O’Neil. Its 2)headquarters were on the 104th floor of tower two, but its roots were in the very heart of America. Its business was providing financial 3)expertise 2 and services to small and medium size banks, and savings 3 and loans all across the country. Of Sandler-O’Neil’s 171 employees, 83 reported for work at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. Only 17 made it out alive.

For the people of Sandler-O’Neil, continuing their business is every bit as important and 4)symbolic 4 as the act that almost ended it. Sandler-O’Neil’s strongest 5)asset had always been its people and the experience that comes with highly trained employees who understood the company’s business and had personal relationships with its customers. But as each day passed, it had become apparent that much of that 6)intellectual and human capital had been 7)depleted.

Just four days after the attack, the survivors 6 at Sandler-O’Neil had already moved into 8)temporary quarters given to them by Bank of America. Brokerage houses and investment banks, competitors in what had been the cutthroat world of Wall Street finance offered equipment, people and services, whatever Sandler-O’Neil needed to stay alive.

By Monday morning with the market set to reopen, they were moved in and ready to go in spite of the fact that most of their stock traders were among the missing. Terry Maltese who had run another division of the company moved in and took charge.

Terry Maltese: This has been a horrible week as everybody knows. And it’s amazing what’s happened and it’s amazing everything we’ve had to do, and I’m very proud of everything we have done here. I’m more sad about everything we’ve lost and that we had to do this. Talking to the families was the worst thing. We’ve got a lot of 9)distraught families, a lot of people that are very upset. People don’t know what they’re going to do and a lot of kids and wives missing their husbands. A few days ago, we started collecting DNA 7 here. These are things I never thought any of us would do. We’ve done them. We’re going to continue to do every single thing we can do for the families for as long as it takes. But in order to do that, one of the things we need to do is we need to be in business. So today, we’re in business and it is gonna to work. We have no choice. Ok, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do it because not doing it is not going to be an 10)option. And people want to do business with us. We’ve got several firms that are working for us for free. I spoke 8 to Trident yesterday and asked them if they could do something for us where we would split 11)commissions with business we route through them. They said the only way they would do it is if the split is zero for them and all for us. Everybody wants to help us. So we can’t not do this and we will do this. At nine o’clock last Tuesday morning, Frankie and Bruce were standing 9 at their desk waiting for the market to open, so they could trade. The market never opened and they never got to make those trades. The market is going to open today and we’re going to make those trades. Yes, our friends are gone, their desk is gone. We’re here and make no mistake Bruce and Frankie are here and they’re watching us and we’re not going to disappoint’em. And Herman’s watching us, and Herman, he knows we can do this. So very simply we’re going to do this!

There was a rumor 10 afoot on Wall Street 12)mistakenly reported that Sandler-O’Neil had suspended operations so Jimmy Donne, who had never done an interview before, went live on CNBC to let his clients and the financial 13)community know that Sandler-O’Neil was up and running and here to stay.

Jimmy Donne: We don’t, you know, write songs, we don’t write novels. We’re Wall Street people who are going to respond as we know how.

And respond they did.CE

世贸双塔不但象征着美国金融，这里面工作的也都是美国金融的核心人才。拿这家小型投资银行公司——山德勒·奥尼尔——来说吧，它的总部座落在南塔104层，但其地位在美国人心中却根深蒂固。它的业务是为全美国的中小型银行和储蓄借贷公司提供财务服务。该公司的171名员工据报有83名在九月十一日当天早晨来世贸大厦上班，仅17人逃出生天。

要该公司的员工重新投入工作，跟几乎摧毁公司的恐怖袭击同样重要和意义非凡。山德勒·奥尼尔公司最重要的资产向来是人，是受过良好训练、熟悉公司业务并与客户保持良好个人关系的雇员的经验。但相当多的资深人才已不在人世，这情况逐日变得明显。

遇袭后第四天，山德勒·奥尼尔公司的幸存者搬进美国银行提供的临时办公室。过去曾同是华尔街金融圈内激烈竞争的经纪行、投资银行和对手如今给山德勒·奥尼尔公司提供设备、人力、服务、以及他们所需要的一切。

星期一早晨是股市预定重新开张的时候，尽管有许多股票经纪人失了踪，他们还是搬迁进来并准备投入工作。另一家分部的特利·马特西前来主持大局。

特利·马特西：众所周知这是恐怖的一周。万料不到会发生此事，我们竟能做到这一切工作，我为大家所付出的努力深感骄傲。我为我们失去的一切以及不得不做这些事情感到很难过。更难过的是和死难者亲属谈话。许多亲属伤心欲狂，悲恸欲绝。他们不知道该何去何从，许多孩子……许多妻子失去了丈夫。几天前，我们开始收集DNA。我从没想到我们要做这种事情。但我们也做到了。我们要为那些死难者亲属尽每一分力，这样我们就需要重新投入工作。因此我们今天就要重新开业，一定要成功。我们别无选择。好的，我们要做，我们必须要做，别无他法。人们想和我们一起做交易。有好几家公司愿意免费为我们提供服务。昨天我要求曲登公司给我们提供服务，说我们会给他们分佣金。他们说他们愿意免费给我们服务。每个人都愿意来帮助我们。因此我们不能自暴自弃，我们要努力工作。上周二上午九点，弗兰奇和布鲁斯站在桌旁等待股市开张来进行交易。股市再没开过，他们也永远不能再交易了。今天股市定要开张，我们将达成那些交易。是的，我们的朋友没了，他们的桌子没了。但我们仍在这里，而且不要弄错，布鲁斯和弗兰奇也依然在这里，他们在看着我们，我们是不会让他们失望的。赫曼也在看着我们，赫曼知道我们能够让股市重开。所以我们今天必将做到！

有关于华尔街的误传说山德勒·奥尼尔公司已经停业，所以从没接受过采访的吉米·东纳在美国有线电视上亮相，向客户的金融团体宣告该公司依然上市，如常营业。

吉米·东纳：我们不会写歌，我们也不写小说。我们是华尔街人，我们凭专业知识作出回应。

他们果真做到了。CE

1) twin [twin] a. 孪生的，相似的

2) headquarters [hed5kwa:tEz] n. 总部，司令部

3) expertise [ekspE:5ti:z] n. 专家意见

4) symbolic [sim5bClik] a. 象征的

5) asset [5Aset] n. 资产

6) intellectual [inti5lektjuEl] n. 知识分子

7) deplete 5 [di5pli:t] v. 耗尽，使消除

8) temporary [5tempErEri] a. 暂时的

9) distraught [di5strC:t] a. 发狂的

10) option [5CpFEn] n. 选项

11) commission [kE5miFEn] n. 佣金

12) mistakenly [mis5teikEnli] adv. 错误地，曲解地

13) community [kE5mju:niti] n. 社会，团体