Terrorism & Business - The Old New Normal

We hear commentators speak of Terrorism as the New Normal not only impacting daily life; but presumably business. The fact is that acts of terrorism that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and non-believers have been going on for decades. The state of Israel has been dealing with terrorism, since is was founded at a Jewish state in 1948. Yet, the Israeli people have built a beautiful first world nation, while being surrounded by Arab Countries, including land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, where people live with pervasive corruption, poverty and misery.

Other Western countries too have been dealing with terrorism of one kind or another going back to the 1970's when airplanes were being hijacked and or the case of the Lockerbie 747 destroyed by Libyan terrorists, which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people over Scotland. In fact, this CEO Blogger was working in London for Merrill Lynch, two weeks after President Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya in retaliation. Just before I arrived, terrorists blew up the American Express office in London just down the street from our office.

So to be sure, terrorism is not new, so calling it the New Normal ignores the fact that Islamic Radicals have been at war with the West for many decades culminating in 9/11 that changed the world. And, with the exception of 9/11, which did cause a mild recession lasting about a year, business has continued as usual responding to economic fundamentals more than acts of terrorism. Again, with the exception of 9/11, the boom and bust cycles we have experienced in the last 35 years, including major recessions and stock market gyrations have had little to do with specific acts of terrorism and more to do with supply and demand, financial mismanagement and cyclical market forces. Sadly, terrorism may be a fact of life; but it is not new. 

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