Personal Finance - Monday

         Today in the morning we were very privileged to have Mr. Warren of Merrill Lynch come in and talk to us about the business cycle and debt. He showed us a variety of charts from Bloomberg and explained what their purposes were and how they could be used as indicators for an upcoming recession or boom in the economy. For me personally, it was eye opening to conceptualize how each of the different charts related to one another. For instance, he explained how capital expansion relates to investor confidence which relates to consumer confidence which relates to the stock market which relates to interest rates and how basically everything is connected. He also talked about ways the government tries to get involved with boosting the economy, specifically he covered lowering taxes and lowering interest rates (two things that are already relatively low right now). This transitioned the discussion into concerns of the national debt. Warren explained to us that the debt might actually be larger than the government wants us to believe, and that neither political party seems to be bothered by the harsh reality. He said that the issue of national debt is often overlooked by politicians and media and both parties are guilty of promoting policies that contribute to it. On a brighter note, he explained that he is incredibly impressed with our generation and that change needs to stem from things that the youth decide to do in the coming years. After Warren's presentation, we were able to listen to some presentations given by students on important topics like retirement, capitol allocation, and entrepreneurship. In the afternoon, we were able to watch "The Big Short" which effectively explained the housing bubble that lead to the recession in 2008. This was the third time seeing the movie, however it was just as interesting watching it for the third time as it was the first. This time I felt like I fully grasped the concept of why the bubble happened to the point where I could explain it entirely to someone. It talked about Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), Sub-Prime Mortgages, and Credit Default Swaps, all things that made the crash happen. Overall the movie was informative, but also had a compelling storyline included in each of the subplots that were simultaneously going on. Overall, I was incredibly engaged with everything we did today and I am excited to see what we do tomorrow.