For the typical first world youth not unlike myself, computers and modern financial markets are both easily taken for granted. In other words, we easily accept concepts of cross-border debt flows in hundreds of billions, forgetting that they are concepts not much older than ourselves!

Back in 2001, Iceland’s fishermen became bankers overnight – which was only the beginning of a nightmare that would eventually lead to the sharp depreciation of it’s currency, the Krona, and near bankruptcy. In 2008, the world witnessed the U.S. subprime mortgage bubble pop that eventually led to the biggest bailout in history; following that, several Eurozone governments are on the fringe of default. Greece’s government budget deficit secretly spiralled up with nobody keeping track, Spain’s bond rates are sky high, and Italy, Portugal, and Ireland are worrisome, too. On top of that, U.S. budget forecasts trillions of deficits in the near future.

On a micro basis, the average student has more debt on their shoulders (partly from increased tuition, lack of debt education as mentioned by Sam Dunner’s blog, living costs, but mostly from national budget deficits) than any generation before them. As a business student entering a world like this, I’d like to say: thanks for all the mess! Actually, Varun has mentioned banking ethics in her recent post as well.

Dear bankers, you all act like you’re incredibly intelligent, but why do you take unwarranted risks, out of greed? Dear politicians, you like to act like you’re moral, but when are you ever planning to have a budget surplus?

Sincerely,

An angry commerce student.