Lloyd’s of London has reported a record loss of £3.1 billion ($4.44 billion) directly related to the 11 September attacks. Similarly Swiss Re reported the largest loss in its 138-year history of 165 million Swiss francs (£69 million/$98.9 million).
This might be interpreted by some as a sign of the vulnerability of global capitalism but in fact it indicates quite the opposite. The fact that the effect of a huge capital loss in the USA can be spread around the world, rather than born entirely by the target of that loss is an impressive demonstration of the ability of modern networked capitalism systems to absorb losses and ‘keep on ticking’.
And just incidentally, it also highlights that it was far more than just the United States which was attacked by the two aircraft which crashed into the WTC.
