Finance students begin DC immersion week

Nate Quest writes the following for the Olin Blog:

Our first day in Washington D.C. began with a slightly rainy bus tour. The guide introduced the historic backgrounds and stories of the architecture on the way. The first stop was at the United States Capitol Building. The Capitol is the home of the Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the Federal government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington DC. The Capitol forms the origin point for the District’s street-numbering system and the District’s four quadrants. The building looks elegant regardless of the rainy weather.

Then we headed to White House. The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. However, President Donald Trump was on a foreign trip this week, so there was no chance for us to bump into each other. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President’s Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of “America’s Favorite Architecture.” Though it’s a great pity that we are not allowed to get close to or enter White House, we enjoyed ourselves a lot there.

The afternoon consisted of a lecture by our faculty instructor, Rich Ryffel.

We were challenged us to ask if government responses to fixing problems might possibly create unintended consequences and bring conditions for other failures. We discussed some benefits of free markets and the role of government institutions in the markets.

We discussed the automotive bailout during the Global Financial Crisis and its impact on the economy, the auto industry, and the potential for creating moral hazard.

We discussed the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA. The CRA supported home ownership, but some thought it contributed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

It was refreshing to begin our week in DC with a less formal day of learning.

Tomorrow marks our first day at the Brookings Institute, and we are looking forward to visiting the prestigious Washington think tank the rest of the week.
Guest Bloggers: Dan Li, Tianbo (Tab) Li, Xingying (Hilary) Long, Manyi Qin (GMF 2017)

This is a series of blogs chronicling the experiences of 42 Global Master of Finance (GMF) dual degree students during their two week immersion course in New York and Washington, DC. Each blog will be written by a small subset of students during their experience. Names of speakers and presenters at firms are anonymous at the request of the firms and course organizers.