Show Me Where the Money Goes
Katharine Eneguess, President of White Mountains Community CollegeAre you a little at sea trying to comprehend the details of the present credit crisis affecting the United State's financial system?
If so, you're not alone. While it's fairly easy to comprehend the consequences of someone not being able to make his or her monthly mortgage payments, it's much harder to figure out exactly how investment banks bundled mortgages together and sold different parts of them to entities across the globe. Did you know, of instance, that almost a year ago four Norwegian towns up near the Arctic Circle lost $64 million from investments those municipalities made in collateralized debt obligations that originated in the U.S.?The plight of the towns made international news, and they reportedly had to be bailed out by the government of Norway so that they could keep paying their operating expenses.
While the present credit crisis might be a record-breaker in terms of the magnitude of the response by the federal government, it is not the first time the country has faced such a challenge to our financial system. Some of our older North Country residents still remember the Great Depression, which dragged on through the 1930s in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929. More recently, there was the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, which brought banks across the country to their knees and stalled the real estate industry.
We don't know what the economy will do in the future, but learning about how business and the economic system work can help you get a handle on what is happening now, and for those interested in taking the next step of a career in the business sector, we can help you get started.
At White Mountains Community College we offer an associate degree in Business Administration, a good starting point for our future business leaders. Besides such courses as Accounting, Business Plan Development and Intro to Business Logic and Ethics, the curriculum for this degree includes Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics.
The Macroeconomics course is a survey of issues affecting the world economy and touches on global trade, causes of inflation, the role of productivity, supply and demand, the nature of money, and more. Our Managerial Finance and Accounting course gives you an introduction to business accounting and finance. This course will teach you how to use this information to make solid management decisions.
On a very practical level, there will always be a need for professionals who know how to keep track of the most basic part of our economic system, money. Every sector of our society uses dollars and cents to accomplish goals. Wood pellet manufacturers use money to pay the loggers who fell the trees for them. Hospitals use money to pay the nurses who tend their patients. Towns and cities use money to pay the public works crews who plow the winter's snow-covered roads.
No matter what the economy does on a national and international level, on the local and community level the circulation of money will continue. Whether your goal is to work in a front office position or start your own business, our Business Administration degree will give you a solid base on which to build your future.
Back to News List10/11/2008
© White Mountains Community College. 2020 Riverside Drive, Berlin, NH 03570. Tel: (800)445-4525 or (603)752-1113.