Ray Kinsella on Catharsis

To start, let me be honest: when I looked at my class timetable and saw Financial Institutions Management I was not terribly excited. Fordham requires finance as a core class for CBA so I put it off till my semester abroad thinking it would be one of those classes I simply had to get over with. Now granted that I have only been to the class once, I have a good feeling about it. My professor is Ray Kinsella, a lead commentator and scholar on the state of finance in both Ireland and Europe. He has written several books and his articles frequently appear in the Irish Times. A few observations on my first class at UCD: half the students are from the states, not what I was expecting. Kinsella flat out said he doesn't expect to see most of us until exam time, which I find strange given that I'm a nerd who never misses class. I guess the Irish philosophy towards things is a bit different. Getting back to the catharsis thing, I really liked Kinsella's use of the term to describe what is happening in the financial world right now. In a sense nothing could be more true, the financial system is in the middle of a massive purification and the extent to which that occurs will strongly influence the future of our economies. Irish or American, the modern world is a global one so I'm excited to gain insight into what is happening around us from a new perspective. Hopefully in the process I will learn something useful, which is the point of all this right? Other than that, I survived the so called "Black Monday" at UCD and my class today is canceled. Now if only I could find a solid loop around campus for my daily cycling; too many dead ends!