For an already traumatized na-tion, America seemed to take the Oct. 7 news that the U. S. had begun bombing Afghanistan in stride. Stock prices slid, then recovered in the days that followed. Re-tailers reported that shoppers were still showing up at malls. ceos exuded confidence that lower interest rates and fiscal stimuli had set the stage for a strong recovery sometime next year.rnThat also was the market-soothing message the Group of Seven industrial countries sought to project on Oct. 6, the eve of the U. S. strikes. At an un-precedented joint press conference at a Washington conference center, where reporters first had to pass through met-al detectors and be checked by bomb-sniffing dogs, finance ministers and cen-tral bankers from the U. S., Europe, and Japan assured investors that the globalrneconomy will shake off its malaise and snap back smartly next year.
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