Retrospective explores long-term economic consequences of 9/11 attacks

In his ten-year retrospective of 9/11, Buyouts reporter Gregory Roth interviewed private equity leaders throughout the country to explore the long-term economic consequences of the terrorist attacks.
“The new world order is far less predictable than it was before the attacks,” Bill Barnum, a partner at Los Angeles-based Brentwood Associates, told Roth for the piece. “We’re still just one terrorist attack away from really bad changes happening quickly again.”
After 9/11, one of Brentwood’s portfolio companies that made luggage saw sales quickly deteriorate as Americans shunned air travel. As a result, the consumer-oriented firm decided to focus more on growth-oriented companies that would organically grow – regardless of the economy.