US authorities and financial institutions are poised for emergency action this week in an effort to forestall turmoil in American markets and the economy with the reopening of the New York Stock Exchange.
The Wall St exchange is only blocks away from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, where emergency crews are still trying to find survivors and recover bodies.
The market reopening, early today, came as economists and some leading Government officials acknowledged that a recession was probably inevitable.
Companies such as General Electric and Ford have already warned about the effect of the terrorist attacks on profits.
American Vice-President Dick Cheney hinted at a recession in an interview. "We clearly have a war against terrorism and we don't know yet what the third quarter is going to be like [for the economy]."
The reopening of the exchange was masterminded by its balding chairman, Richard A. Grasso, memorably described by the New York Times as "a little like Stevens, the devoted butler in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day, for his attention to exchange etiquette".
Last Tuesday (US time), he got word of the disaster unfolding a few blocks away when one of his vice-presidents phoned him from the exchange's office in the north tower of the World Trade Center a few seconds after the first explosion. Mr Grasso instantly decided to evacuate the exchange's workers there.
Since then he has worked to make sure not just that the technology is in place but also that the workers are willing to return to the floor of the exchange.
Early today, he and his staff were due to hand out surgical masks to the exchange's 3500 traders and employees as they returned to work for the first time in six days.
The protection against breathing in dust from the nearby World Trade Center is the last detail in his plan to reopen the market.
Mr Grasso, who has run the exchange since 1995, has sometimes acted very differently from a typical Wall St executive.
In 1999, he met Marxist guerrillas in the Colombian jungles. That year, he began shaving his head.
He is quick to make his presence felt in the exchange. As the terrorists flew the two hijacked jetliners into the twin 110-storey towers six blocks away, he used the public address system to urge staff and traders to remain calm. Staffers passed out fruit and bottled water.
"I saw their reaction to his voice and I was impressed," said Bill Silver, a trader who was on the floor at the time.
"He's a respected authority there and they trusted his judgment."
Yesterday, a trickle of people who once lived beside the soaring twin towers of the World Trade Center trudged past mangled steel and rubble to their apartments for the first time since the tragedy.
Some said they might never want to return permanently.
With water, electricity and gas cut off, the 12,000 residents of Battery Park City cannot live there for weeks. While officials said none of the 25 high-rises were structurally damaged and only one apartment building had windows shattered by falling debris, something else was destroyed.
"Previously I loved the area. It was so peaceful - the park, rollerblading along the river every night," said Richard Mendles, aged 36, who had a 22nd-floor view of the twin towers.
"The World Trade Center lit up my whole apartment at night; all its windows sparkled."
City authorities planned to open much of lower Manhattan's financial district east of Broadway to pedestrians and public transportation before today's return to work.
Mayor Giuliani warned New Yorkers to expect disruption but urged them to brave the inconvenience and seek some semblance of normalcy.
The Port Authority, which runs bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey, said yesterday that it was ready for the morning rush.
Mayor Giuliani organised a ferry service from Brooklyn because the Brooklyn Bridge is reserved for rescue vehicles.
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: 0168 1800 932 8555
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