The Daily Interview: Assessing the Impact of Lost Financial Records

Moments after the first plane crashed into the first World Trade Center tower Tuesday morning, an astounding amount of paper floated in the air throughout lower Manhattan.

As many watched the sight of what looked like confetti in a ticker-tape parade, the deceptively peaceful sight caused many to mistakenly remain in their offices when they should have been fleeing the horrific carnage and destruction that were about to descend upon them.

But that tonnage of paper had more significance than just fooling those who hadn't already fled. Given the number of financial services companies that were located in the World Trade Center, many of those thousands of sheaths of paper likely contained critical financial records that only existed in hard-copy form -- and they may now be lost forever. ...