Waiting for “The Crash of 2008: Causes and Cures,” a class presented by Robert Marischen, I noticed everyone on the fourth floor of Tangeman University Center was significantly older than I am. Entering the room for the course, I was excited to hear what Marischen had to say; after all, he has an MBA, CPA, CFP and a CDP (whatever that is). He was also chief financial officer for several companies during his career.But looking around I thought I might have entered a Social Security clinic, judging by the people around me. I must have looked out of place to the kind woman who handed me a packet with OLLI written across the front.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is a program here at the University of Cincinnati that specializes in educating individuals over the age of 50. The program covers a variety of topics. The most popular topics seem to focus on wealth management and health, but right-side brain activities like creative writing, film and language classes are available as well.Needless to say, it was a dead giveaway: I am not part of OLLI, as you have to be more than half a century old to participate.
The class took a while to get rolling as the instructor had a limited number of handouts, and, for reasons the youth of America may not understand, e-mail never came up.Finally, a decision was made, calling for the 16 people who wanted the information packet at the end of the class, to get it and share with others. After this dilemma was over Marischen introduced game theory. Marischen mentioned that decisions were made or, “games were played,” in order for someone in the political or financial world to gain more power or money.This seems quite obvious, but looking at this game in depth changes the scope. Should politicians (especially) and even financiers be incentivized by their own monetary gain over what seems like the ethical goals of providing jobs and opportunity for growth in the economy?
Marischen suggested the war in Iraq was the main focus for the start of the crisis, suggesting the conflicts began in 2003 (after the dot com bubble burst) and that the war was a political tool to get the economy rolling for the last of the Republican White House years.It was an interesting point; many current theories suggest this crisis began prior to 2003, siting bank deregulation in 1999 as allowing the creation of mega banks such as Citi and AIG.
Of course, discussion ensued and opinions were expressed heatedly as many were unhappy with the opinions of the instructor, but he did a solid job standing his ground and insisting game theory was the way to look at this crisis. Many were obviously angry, but the educational understanding of the crisis was not high, as it was an introductory course and most of us still are trying to sort out how this all happened.
Marischen made a great point in terms of how the CEOs of certain companies exacerbated this mess.“Those that committed fraud should be in jail, but you should not go to jail for stupidity,” Marischen said.What he means is that many CEOs were stupid because they did not know what was going on or they didn’t necessarily try to fully understand what was happening in their companies. Maybe these CEOs should not go to jail, but their money should be taken and given back to tax payers (the government).
Upon leaving what many might have thought was a World Bingo Tournament, I came out realizing older generations have faced horrible economic conditions before, and they have interesting things to say.They respected a person far younger being in the mix and OLLI is creating a great avenue for elders to meet.A mix of OLLI and students could create an even better network and possibly help get us out of this economic problem because the older generations have invaluable advice and experience we, as young students, sometimes forget.
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