Saturday, October 11, 2008

Reflection on the Financial crisis and the in class simulation

The financial crisis that has gripped America in the past few months has many people worried. Financial analysts believe that it started with the mortgage crisis, when many banks started to fold. That in turn has led to the stock market falling. Most recently, the Dow Jones Average closed below 9,000 points. With the declining market, people are losing money. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve have tried to stabilize the crisis but have not yet succeed. As everybody knows, the bailout package was approved in congress but even still, it will take a long time to see an effect from it. It’s scary to see the markets plummeting. My family has been very lucky thus far in that it hasn’t effected us.  But if this continues, it could affect us as well as countless others. Even though the government and economists don’t really know what’s happening, they need to figure it out! They also need to do something to stabilize the market and not have “main street” pay for the mistakes of Wall Street and risky mistakes that banks made.

            Last week, I reflected on preparing for the simulation. Now I want to write a brief reflection on the simulation its self. I really enjoyed this simulation. I felt that it was a great way to learn about how an issue like car manufacturing can be international. Also, it was interesting to hear from so many different angles.  For example, I was surprised to hear that my group, the American Auto Manufactures, took a new stand on the issue from previous years. The stand of eliminating domestic content rules seemed so clear to us. It was interesting that groups before took the opposite stand that we did.  I was a little disappointed that we didn’t have any time to persuade other groups to come to our respective positions. I’m very excited for our next simulation, because I really enjoy the hands on learning experience. 

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