The moment the "9/11 attacks" hit, the Bush administration sprang into action with a flurry of emergency measures.
Politically, they set aside differences, united both parties, and rallied to face the national crisis together.
Domestically, they grounded all flights—international ones rerouted through Canada—and requested a massive aid package from Congress for the airlines.
On security, they launched a sweeping investigation into every suspicious person who'd entered the country recently, beefing up law enforcement and public safety presence.
Economically, they halted trading on the stock, bond, currency, and futures markets, giving the Treasury and the Fed time to figure things out.
Diplomatically, they pitched a proposal to NATO, invoking Article 5 of the alliance treaty: if any nation orchestrated this attack, it'd be treated as a military strike on the U.S.—and on every NATO member.
Militarily, the Commander-in-Chief asked the House for permission to launch a counterstrike…
By September 13, the Secretary of State held a press conference, pinning Al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect.
On September 14, the House voted overwhelmingly to greenlight retaliation, authorizing President Bush to strike terrorists at his discretion.
The Republicans and Democrats might bicker over ideology, and Congress often stalls with the opposition just saying "no" for the sake of it—efficiency be damned.
But the U.S. is run by elites. They'll squabble over small stuff, sure. When it's a make-or-break moment for the nation, though, the parties snap into line, turbocharging government action.
And just like that, Bush's Republican administration morphed into a "quasi-wartime government." They handled the crisis like pros—quick, decisive moves that fired up patriotic fervor.
For the past year, the media had ripped into Bush's aggressive policies. Now? Overnight, the tone flipped.
TV shows and news reports gushed over the selflessness and patriotism of government officials, civil servants, cops, and soldiers. On the home front and abroad, in this "new war," American public opinion was practically unanimous.
The New York Times and CBS ran a huge poll—over 90% of Americans backed a retaliatory strike on Al-Qaeda!
The Washington Post laid out the war's justification on its front page: "Under UN law, a sovereign nation can only attack another if the Security Council approves—like Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War. Otherwise, it's an illegal invasion."
"When a nation's hit by a military attack, it can fight back to defend itself without UN approval—think South Korea, South Vietnam, Kuwait."
"9/11 was a premeditated military move by Al-Qaeda, targeting America's economic hub, the World Trade Center, and its military core, the Pentagon. It's the second attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor. We don't need the UN—this is our sovereign counterstrike!"
The New York Post went big, detailing Al-Qaeda's evil: the 1993 World Trade Center car bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, the 1998 embassy bombings, the 2000 USS Cole explosion…
It even threw in snippets about extremist rule in Afghanistan: women banned from working—or shot; women outside without a covered face—shot; watching banned videos—shot; girls over eight going to school—parents shot…
East or West, ancient or modern, the playbook for starting a war never changes.
Step one: unleash the media to paint the enemy as evil and us as righteous. Step two: rally the public, stoke their anger, win overwhelming support. Step three: secure the war budget and roll out the tanks!
Right now, the U.S. was a pressure cooker. Beyond coverage of victims' families and rescue efforts, the media was all war drums—"Whoever dares harm mighty America will pay, no matter how far they hide!"
The smoke wasn't visible yet, but the stench of war was thick.
In just days, the Bush administration had locked in public support and bipartisan approval. All that was left was step three—pass the debt, fund the war, and let it rip!
Wouldn't take long.
Dunn couldn't care less about military stuff or the war itself. His eyes were on the stock market—when would it reopen?
Before that, his big worry was raking in too much cash from 9/11 and catching flak from jealous media outlets playing the morality card.
Now, it didn't seem like a problem.
Every outlet was laser-focused on the attacks and the coming war. Even the gossip rags had gone quiet.
A wave of feel-good vibes had swept American media!
Negative stories? Practically extinct.
This was perfect!
All flights were grounded, but private planes were fine. Scott Swift had already jetted back to New York to run the show.
Compared to the dot-com bust, this short-selling spree was bigger, broader, and packed way more cash!
Dunn Capital had thrown $21.3 billion into the game, leveraging it 25 times—shorting one NASDAQ stock and 124 NYSE stocks.
It was like a massive black hole, ready to suck up everything from NASDAQ and NYSE—gobbling, gobbling, gobbling!
This was gonna be a fortune for the ages!
Back in New York, Scott Swift went from a nobody to the hottest name overnight!
A plane might've smashed into a building in Manhattan, but to Wall Street's greedy sharks, what's a disaster?
A disaster's just money!
"Dunn, I've finally seen the true colors of these Wall Street guys!" Scott Swift sighed over the phone.
Dunn chuckled. "I bet a bunch of financial bigwigs are cozying up to you now, huh?"
"Chasing profit, dodging loss—that's human nature. I'm talking about Wall Street!"
"Oh? What's up?"
Scott's voice slowed. "You know what? The second the attacks hit, Wall Street's fat cats weren't thinking about national safety or rescue efforts. They were thinking about cash."
Dunn smirked to himself. And you're any different?
He didn't even feel that attached to the U.S., yet when 9/11 hit, he still felt shaken, a pang of sympathy.
But Scott Swift, born-and-bred American, laughed it off—a true Wall Street wolf.
"The markets got shut down, right? Futures too—no way they're trading those," Dunn said, puzzled.
Scott replied, "Sure, U.S. markets are frozen. But there's Europe! There's the Nikkei! This is Manhattan—it drags the whole global economy down with it."
"Oh? What'd they do?"
"Not sure on the details yet, but I heard through the grapevine—two big-name financial titans are dumping airline stocks like crazy."
Dunn nodded. "Makes sense. Hijackings will scare people off flying. For months, U.S. airlines will be ghost towns. That'll hit international passenger numbers too. Airlines are gonna bleed cash—totally predictable."
Scott said, "Right now, Tokyo's down 48%, London's down 62%, Paris is down 114%, Frankfurt's down 91%. And the hardest-hit airline stocks? British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France—all crashed over 30%."
Dunn blinked. "What about us? Didn't we short some airline stocks too?"
"Three of 'em—not a ton," Scott sighed, a little bummed. Then he perked up. "But no worries! Beyond airlines, tourism and insurance stocks are gonna tank hard too! Especially insurance—$30 billion in claims? Their stocks are getting cut in half, easy!"
"Oh? How many do we have?"
"Fourteen tourism stocks, twenty-five insurance ones!"
Dunn's mind lit up.
He paused, then said, "Right now, global markets are waiting for the U.S. to reopen. The Fed's gotta step in to calm everyone down."
Scott laughed it off. "What can the Fed do? Tweak interest rates, mess with currency—small potatoes. Won't stop the panic selling. Mark my words, this time… it'll take a trillion bucks to plug the hole!"
…
Latest update: the markets will reopen next Monday, September 17.
For Dunn, that was golden news.
By comparison, TA Network's week was a snooze—subscriptions only ticked up by 20,000.
This weekend, Band of Brothers Episode 2 didn't air as planned. Instead, they swapped in a comedy—Universal's Meet the Parents with Robert De Niro.
That flick hit theaters last October and raked in $330 million on a budget-friendly gamble.
Viewership? Solid—peaked at over 16 million households.
Goes to show, movies still outshine TV.
Then again, maybe this weekend, tons of families ditched going out and stayed home to watch.
It's a wild time.