9/11: the single biggest destruction of financial records in the history of humanity

I'm reposting this here, as it was deleted some hours after I posted it in another sub a few months ago, and brings together elements of this story I don't see often connected or discussed much anywhere else. Namely, that the events on 9/11 were a massive destruction of accounting records. Many of which were still on paper and not backed-up off site. At both the Pentagon and in the Twin Towers complex.

So to start with, this is a comment post I made over four years ago now; the day after the twentieth anniversary of 9/11:

One thing that has struck me as peculiar and remarkable about the attacks, is that World Trade Center Building 7's largest tenant was Salomon Smith Barney and all their old records were destroyed:

…we lost all art and archival records relating to Salomon's history. Losing the history of this old banking firm is a real tragedy. Fortunately, there had been a history written for Salomon's seventy-fifth anniversary. But, while copies of the history still exist, future historians will be left with scant original sources for the history of one of the most important American financial institutions.

Historically, Salomon Brothers was one of thee largest and most profitable players in the bond market. Particularly U.S. Treasuries. And in 1991* they were embroiled in a scam involving an attempt to corner the market—illegally. And what's always been interesting to me was the date of the 9/11 attacks.

The 30-year treasury bond is a fairly well known asset. And 30 years prior to 9/11/2001 would have been 9/11/1971. Which was just a few weeks after the gold window was closed by Nixon and the dollar became a full fiat currency—8/15/1971. Which dramatically altered the arrangement of assets that backed U.S. Treasuries internationally. So basically, the largest private bond trading firm had their records destroyed just as 30 year bonds from 1971 would have matured. Indeed, if there was any kind of manipulation or financial chicanery on the part of Salomon Bros. in that time of chaos in the Fall of 1971 or thereafter, it would have been destroyed in the attacks.

Further, William Simon, ran the Treasuries desk at Salomon Brothers around that time in 1971. Just before joining the Nixon administration. And in 1974 Simon, working as Treasury Secretary just before Nixon resigned, secretly set up a deal with the Saudis:

The basic framework was strikingly simple. The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into Treasuries and finance America’s spending.

Otherwise known as the petrodollar system. So Simon set up a secret deal with the Saudi's that would likely run right through his old company into the 100s of billions, and how many of those hijackers were from Saudi Arabia again? (15 of 19) And funny enough, all those old Salomon records were destroyed. Also, importantly:

The collapse made the old 7 World Trade Center the first steel skyscraper known to have collapsed primarily due to uncontrolled fires.

Edit: *Note that 1991 would have been when 20-year T-bonds would have matured after August 1971. Here you can see Warren Buffet testify before Congress about the Salomon bond scandal that year on 9-4-1991.

Also, in 1981 when 10-year T-bonds would have matured after August 1971, the company was acquired for the first time in its history through a reverse takeover with a public firm:

Behind the Salomon Brothers Buyout—Fortune 9-7-1981

Some of the links have now been removed, but most are still active. Also, I think it's important to add this information about Building 7 (bold emphasis mine):

Other major tenants included ITT Hartford Insurance Group, American Express Bank International, Standard Chartered Bank, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Smaller tenants included the Internal Revenue Service Regional Council and the United States Secret Service. The smallest tenants included the New York City Office of Emergency Management, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Federal Home Loan Bank, First State Management Group Inc., Provident Financial Management, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The Department of Defense (DOD) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) shared the 25th floor with the IRS.

Source

While much of this is circumstantial, I think it's important to realize 9/11 was the single biggest destruction of financial records in the history of humanity. And this fact was largely ignored or unreported at the time because of the shocking human tragedy of the event.

While most of the public were rightly focused on individuals jumping from the towers, or other human aspects of the event, not many even noticed all the burning paperwork and flaming computers flying through the air. These were paper and electronic financial records that documented a crucial span of American financial history, which, up until that time, had been essentially unprecedented; the lifting of capital controls, and the removal of the dollar from the gold standard in international trade. Where money could move out of the country at a scope and scale never known before.