Sept. 11

As America prepares to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, eBay is seeing a surge in sales of relics and memorabilia from the World Trade Center and the terrorist attacks, fueled partly by speculators, and partly by our desire to connect with history, however painful.

September marks the anniversary of two events that rocked the markets: the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008. Today, many people worry about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the financial system. International economist Rex Ghosh, who has written a novel about just that, discusses the threat.

No one knows more about putting a price on human suffering than Kenneth R. Feinberg. The new claims administrator for the $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund has spent 25 years finding a measure of justice for victims of disasters from Vietnam to 9/11.

Apple unleashed the iPod to a nation on edge in October 2001. It was six weeks after the September 11 attacks, and the anthrax attacks were popping up, making the public -- already anxious about additional terrorist strikes -- even more fearful of the world around them. People were in no mood to...