Harvard Happenings... Financial Crisis

Last week I attended a seminar on understanding the current stockmarket crisis in the US. It was organised by the Office of the Dean, Drew Fraust, and brought together six of Harvard's greatest legal, political and economic minds. Over 90 minutes the audience was privy to a frank and open discussion that outlined the historical, legal and political ramifications of the current economic "mess". There's a small amount of hysteria going on in the US at the moment, I was hoping that the wisdom of Harvard's elite would calm my sense of unease. Whilst I did

leave slightly less confused and much better informed, I can't say I was reassured by the experience. What became perfectly clear was that noone knows what's going to happen. The market is in free-wheel. People can speculate, you could even make a reasonable guess, but in the end it is just a guess. Any changes to the system, such as the $700billion bailout could help, but are equally likely to cause changes that move the system in an unpredictable and unexpected way. All anyone was prepared to say was that the system is a mess, in the short-term it is unlikely to improve, it may get worse (potentially much worse) but in the long-run things always self-correct.

Meanwhile I have my first health economics exam this Friday. My first American "mid-term". Just saying that still makes think of Degrassi Junior High and giggle!