20 years on in globalisation

Where were you 20 years ago on September 11? I was in a sitting room in my university town watching my favourite evening quiz show at the time- or at least, I planned to watch it, but when I sat down and switched on all I saw was the blue sky of the New York horizon, and smoke coming from one of the two towers of the World Trade Center. At the time I hardly knew what that was. It sounded like something connected with the UN, which I knew was headquartered in New York. I didn’t really know the WTC was the home to many global firms, or major branches of them.

What we were watching was an attack on the heart of the financial system which had spread around the world in the 20th century. The irony was that it…